Twenty Third Amendment- District of Columbia Voting Rights in National Elections

Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article using appropriate legislation.


In my opinion, the twenty third amendment gave the citizens of D.C. the voting rights they deserved from the beginning. It seems odd to me that the people in D.C. did not have these rights from the start. They are American citizens just like everyone else and there is no reason why it should take an amendment to make them equal. Up until this point elections had not included a large part of the citizens. Many of the people residing in D.C. are government workers who may have a particular interest in politics. It seems as though these people would be prime voter candidates. As the trend goes, the twenty third amendment rightfully gave rights to those who had been denied them previously.





My Opinion: I chose this video because I have never realized how odd it is that there are people living in the United States that do no have any Congressional Representation. The most awkward part is that they are living in our nations capitol surrounded by the representatives from every state. I think that the only way that D.C. will gain the right of Congressional representation will be if they are first made a state instead of a district. It will be an interesting thing to see if Obama actually addresses this issue due to its complexity and controversy.


The Capital: 23rd Amendment
Time Magazine
March 31, 1961

Thanks to a succession of oversights by the Founding Fathers and early Congresses, the residents of the District of Columbia have never enjoyed one particular constitutional right cherished by all other Americans: the privilege of voting. There was no reasoning attending the oversights; it was just plain neglect.† Last week Rhode Island cast the 36th affirmative vote for the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, giving 746,000 Washingtonians the right to vote in presidential elections — and three electoral votes. Ohio and Kansas are expected to ratify the amendment this week, making the necessary two-thirds majority for official adoption (only one legislature—Arkansas—rejected the amendment outright, on the ground that 54% of the District's citizens are Negroes).

But after 161 years, Washingtonians will be limited to voting for the President and Vice President. They will continue to have no representative in Congress, no voice in their municipal government.


My Opinion: I chose this article because it brings up the issue of Washington D.C. not having any congressional representation. With the passage of the twenty third amendment the citizens of Washington D.C. were given the right to vote in national elections but not congressional ones. It has been said that D.C. should not be given this right because the President resides in D.C. and is the representative for its people. The only problem with this is that the president can only make suggestions about legislation. He does not have the ultimate authority on its passage unlike congress. This means that D.C. has the right to vote for the face of America but not for the people who decide the policies that are enforced.