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Which constitutional amendment gave the District of Columbia representation in the Electoral College?
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Electoral College
A certificate from Alabama showing the signatures of the state's electors in 2000. The nine electors voted for George W. Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney.
The Twenty-third Amendment, ratified in 1961, granted citizens of the District of Columbia the right to participate in presidential elections by choosing electors.1
Because the District is a federal district rather than a state, its residents were historically excluded from the Electoral College. This amendment rectified that by allocating to the District a number of electoral votes equal to what it would be entitled to if it were a state, provided that this number does not exceed that of the least-populated state. In practice, this currently grants the District three electoral votes.1