Why does the District of Columbia, which is not a state and has no voting representatives in Congress, get three electoral votes?
Because Congress and the requisite number of state legislatures decided in 1961 to amend the Constitution to give D.C. residents the right to vote in presidential elections. A constitutional amendment rather than a mere statute was needed to do this because Article II of the Constitution specifically refers to states choosing presidential electors. A House report, in explaining this constitutional amendment, said D.C. residents “have all the obligations of citizenship, including the payment of Federal taxes, of local taxes, and service in our Armed Forces. They have fought and died in every U.S. war since the District was founded.” The amendment would remove the “anomaly of imposing all the obligations of citizenship without the most fundamental of its privileges.
A. Because Congress and the requisite number of state legislatures decided in 1961 to amend the Constitution to give D.C. residents the right to vote in presidential elections. A constitutional amendment rather than a mere statute was needed to do this because Article II of the Constitution specifically refers to states choosing presidential electors. A House report, in explaining this constitutional amendment, said D.C. residents “have all the obligations of citizenship, including the payment of Federal taxes, of local taxes, and service in our Armed Forces. They have fought and died in every U.S. war since the District was founded.” The amendment would remove the “anomaly of imposing all the obligations of citizenship without the most fundamental of its privileges.” Q.
