23rd Amendment
Twenty-Third Amendment
Ratified March 29, 1961
Verbatim
Exact text as ratified.
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 by appropriate legislation.
Plain English
A translation that drops archaic words but keeps the meaning, including the parts courts still argue about.
Section 1. Washington, D.C. — the seat of the federal government — appoints presidential electors. The number of D.C. electors equals what D.C. would have if it were a state, but never more than the least populous state has. These D.C. electors are in addition to those appointed by states and they participate in the presidential election under the same rules as state electors.
Section 2. Congress has the power to enforce this amendment by passing appropriate laws.
About
The Twenty-Third Amendment was ratified on March 29, 1961. It gave residents of Washington, D.C. the right to vote for President and Vice President for the first time. Before this amendment, D.C. residents — despite being U.S. citizens — could not vote in presidential elections because the original Constitution gave electoral votes to states only, and D.C. is not a state.
The amendment caps D.C.'s electoral votes at three (the same as the least populous state) regardless of D.C.'s population. As of 2026, this cap means D.C. has fewer electoral votes per person than it would if it were a state.
The amendment did not give D.C. residents voting representation in Congress. D.C. has a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives and no representation in the Senate. Statehood for D.C., or other forms of voting representation, has been proposed repeatedly but not enacted.