When the 23rd Amendment was passed, it gave voting rights to residents of Washington, DC. Why were they excluded from all of the previous amendments that gave voting rights?
A.
Only politicians were allowed to live in Washington, DC. Previously, people in government were not allowed to vote for themselves.
B.
Washington, DC is not a part of a state; the original Constitution says that only the residents of states were eligible to vote for president.
C.
Washington, DC did not have a large enough population to be eligible to vote.
D.
Before the amendment, it was thought that it was not a good idea to give people who lived so close to the president the right to vote for the president.
Answers
Answer:
The Amendment allows American citizens residing in the District of Columbia to vote for presidential electors, who in turn vote in the Electoral College for President and Vice President. In layperson’s terms, the Amendment means that residents of the District are able to vote for President and Vice President. Prior to the Amendment, citizens residing in the District could not vote for those offices unless they were validly registered to vote in one of the States.
Congress ultimately controls the District, but has allowed it a degree of self-rule. The Seat of Government Clause of the 1787 Constitution, which provided for the establishment of the District, grants Congress exclusive power to govern the District. Over the years, most recently pursuant to the 1973 Home Rule Act, Congress has exercised that power to extend to the District a measure of autonomy, including the power to elect a Mayor and a Council.
Since its creation, the District has sometimes been treated like a State. The District is deemed to be a State for the purpose of levying and collecting federal and local taxes, for service in the armed forces, for diversity jurisdiction, and for regulating commerce. But it still remains that, at present, the District is not considered a State for purposes of congressional representation. Nothing in the Twenty-Third Amendment changes that: the Amendment neither grants the District statehood, nor does it provide residents with representation in the Senate or the House of Representatives, though, by congressional legislation, residents have long had the right to elect a non-voting delegate to the House.
In 1978, Congress adopted “The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment,” which provided for the District of Columbia to “be treated as though it were a State.” The proposed amendment would have given the District seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Only 16 of the 38 States needed for ratification approved the proposed amendment before the seven-year period open for ratification expired.
Answer:
A.) Only politicians were allowed to live in Washington, DC. Previously, people in government were not allowed to vote for themselves.
Explanation:
The 23rd amendment gives residents of Washington DC the right to vote for representatives in the Electoral College. The 23rd amendment passed Congress in June of 1960 and reached the ¾ approval threshold less than a year later, on March 23, 1961.