Twenty-Third Amendment

-Proposed by Congress on June 16, 1960; Declared ratified on March 29, 1961

Section 1
[Electoral College Votes for the District of Columbia]
"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 it 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
[Power to Enforce this Article]
"The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

This amendment is basically recognizing Washington DC's right to vote. It allows for the citizens of the District of Columbia to vote for electors for president and vice president of the United sttes.

The Electoral College was designed to only grant votes to states. Because Washington DC is not a state, until 1961 people who lived in the District of Columbia were unable to vote for president. This amendment gives DC residents a number of presidential electors. They are still unable to send voting representatives or senators to Congress.
The amendment restricts the district to the number of Electors of the least populous state, irrespective of its own population. As of 2010, that state is Wyoming, which has three Electors. However, even without this clause, the district's present population would only entitle it to three Electors. Since the passage of this amendment, the District's electoral votes have gone towards the Democratic candidates in every presidential election.

It just doesn't really make sense to me that prior to this amendment, the people in the very epicenter of our political system, were unable to vote, regardless if they met the 26th Amendment's qualification that 18 year old citizens are eligible to vote.