On this day in 1964, residents of the District of Columbia voted for president for the first time in over a century and a half. Residents of D.C. lost the ability to vote in presidential elections at the turn of the 19th century, when Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act, which carved the city out of land ceded by Virginia and Maryland. D.C. wasn’t a state, so residents lost any representation in the Electoral College. In fact, they couldn’t even elect a local government; everything in the national capital was under the control of Congress.
A whole 16 decades later, in 1961, residents finally got their vote back when the 23rd Amendment was passed. The city’s number of electors has always sat at three due to a requirement that its count match the smallest state’s count (currently Wyoming). D.C. residents voted overwhelmingly in the 1964 election for sitting President Lyndon Johnson (D). Their electors, though, weren’t exactly tie breakers; it had been a runaway victory for Johnson, who won 486-52 in the Electoral College and garnered 61 percent of the popular vote, a record high.
You can read a deeper dive into the first presidential votes cast in D.C. in 160 years at History.com.
