Twenty-third Amendment Law and Legal Definition
Twenty-third Amendment is the U.S. Constitutional Amendment, ratified in 1961, that allows District of Columbia residents to vote in presidential elections. The amendment rectified an omission in the Constitution that prevented residents of the District of Columbia from voting in presidential elections.
The Twenty-third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows:
USCS Const. Amend. 23, § 1. “The District constituting the seat of Government of the U.S. shall appoint in such manner as 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.”
