District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment
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The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. It was presented to the state legislatures for consideration by the 95th Congress in 1978 but failed because it was not ratified by the legislatures of at least 38 U.S. states when the August 22, 1985 deadline—set forth in the Congressional resolution offering the amendment—had passed.
Had it succeeded, the amendment would have repealed the 23rd Amendment and would have granted the to District of Columbia the full voting rights of a state. Specifically, it would have given Washington, D.C. full representation in both houses of the United States Congress in addition to its already-established participation in the Electoral College during Presidential elections. The proposed amendment would have also allowed the Washington, D.C. City Council to participate in the process of acting upon future amendments to the Constitution—on an equal footing as a state's legislature—pursuant to Article V of the Constitution.
In 1980, voters in the District of Columbia approved a citywide initiative calling for a constitutional convention to be prepared for a new state, to be called New Columbia. The product of that convention—the statehood constitution—was adopted by the city's voters in 1982. Provisions of the statehood constitution are still upheld in the electing of an unofficial "shadow" United States Senator to lobby Congress on behalf of interests of importance to Washington, D.C.
The full text of the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment is:
Section 1. For purposes of representation in the Congress, election of the President and Vice President, and article V of this Constitution, the District constituting the seat of government of the United States shall be treated as though it were a State.
Sec. 2. The exercise of the rights and powers conferred under this article shall be by the people of the District constituting the seat of government, and as shall be provided by the Congress.
Sec. 3. The twenty-third article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Sec. 4. This article shall be inoperative, unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.
The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was ratified by the legislatures of the following 16 states:
- New Jersey on September 11, 1978;
- Michigan on December 12, 1978;
- Ohio on December 21, 1978;
- Minnesota on March 19, 1979;
- Massachusetts on March 19, 1979;
- Connecticut on April 11, 1979;
- Wisconsin on November 1, 1979;
- Maryland on March 19, 1980;
- Hawaii on April 17, 1980;
- Oregon on July 6, 1981;
- Maine on February 16 1983;
- West Virginia on February 23, 1983;
- Rhode Island on May 13, 1983;
- Iowa on January 19, 1984;
- Louisiana on June 24, 1984; and
- Delaware on June 28, 1984.
See also:District of Columbia voting rights