Amendment XXV
587
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.
section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
The purpose of this Amendment is to give residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections. Washington, D.C., receives three electoral votes under the Amendment since that is all that
‘‘the least populous State’’—Alaska—is assigned.
n . a m e n d m e n t x x i v (1964)
section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or
other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice
President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll
tax or other tax.
section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
Known as the Poll Tax Amendment, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment eliminates the poll tax in all Federal elections. Two years after its adoption, an
impatient Supreme Court curiously ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Electors that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids a poll tax in all State elections.
o . a m e n d m e n t x x v (1967)
section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or
resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the
President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of