united-states us-constitution district-of-columbia
If HR51 (admitting DC as a state excluding a &quot;Capital&quot; area for federal buildings) were passed, would the &quot;Capital&quot; be entitled to 3 electoral votes?
<p>The House of Representatives passed H.R.51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. Under the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/51/text" rel="nofollow noreferrer">current text</a>, it would admit Washington, DC as a state, excluding a small area around the federal buildings known as the &quot;Capital&quot;, which would continue to serve as the seat of the US government. Section 111(b) of the bill says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(b) Exclusion of portion remaining as seat of Government of United
States.—The territory of the State shall not include the area
described in section 112, which shall be known as the “Capital” and
shall serve as the seat of the Government of the United States, as
provided in clause 17 of section 8 of article I of the Constitution of
the United States.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But under the 23rd Amendment to the US Constitution, the district constituting the seat of the US government gets to appoint electors (in a manner that Congress decides) to the Electoral College that elects the President and Vice President. (The number of electors that the district gets is the number of Senators and Representatives it would have if it were a state, but no more than the number of electors of the least populous state, so effectively the number will always be 3 electors, since each state has 2 senators and at least 1 representative, and there are some states with only 1 representative.)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the
United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Assuming that H.R.51 passes as currently written (I know that there are severe doubts it can pass the Senate, but let's assume it does), and assuming that no Constitutional amendment is enacted, would it cause the small &quot;Capital&quot; area, which will have few residents, to have 3 electors in the Electoral College? It seems this will cause its residents to have a disproportionate influence on the electoral vote for President.</p>
<p>If so, could Congress somehow fix this without amending the Constitution (for example, by repealing the law governing how electors are selected for the district, thereby providing no mechanism of selecting electors for the district)?</p>

<p>They appear to specifically address this in this section:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>SEC. 223. REPEAL OF LAW PROVIDING FOR PARTICIPATION OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT IN ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What this does is remove the District of Columbia from the definition of a &quot;state&quot; as it applies in the USC chapter dealing with Presidential elections.  Since the 23rd Amendment says that the Capital district &quot;shall appoint&quot; electors it would seem that Congress would need to repeal the 23rd Amendment to lawfully stop the Capital district from appointing electors.  This is probably why they are also proposing repealing the 23rd Amendment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>SEC. 224. EXPEDITED PROCEDURES FOR CONSIDERATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT REPEALING 23RD AMENDMENT.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Section 221 also aids in this by giving citizens in the Capital region the opportunity to vote in other jurisdictions (the details are as the title describes):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>SEC. 221. PERMITTING INDIVIDUALS RESIDING IN CAPITAL TO VOTE IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS IN STATE OF MOST RECENT DOMICILE.</p>
</blockquote>
