District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801
- 2 min read
- 2 chapters
Related on Lably
Through President of the United States
Subsequent history
On May 3, 1802, the City of Washington was granted a municipal government consisting of a mayor appointed by the president of the United States. The portion of the District of Columbia ceded by Virginia was returned to that state in 1846-47. The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 replaced the municipal governments of the City of Washington, Georgetown, and Washington County with a single, unified district government for the whole district.
Sign in to keep reading
One more chapter is free with a Lably account.
District voting rights
Following the passage of this Act, residents of the District of Columbia were no longer considered to be residents of either Maryland or Virginia. This left district residents unable to vote for members of Congress. They have voted in presidential elections since the adoption of the Twenty-third Amendment in 1961 (which first applied in the election of 1964). District residents are represented in the House of Representatives by a non-voting delegate who can vote in committee and participate in debate, but cannot vote for final passage of a bill in the House. There have been several efforts to give the inhabitants of the district representation, but the United States remains perhaps the only modern republic where residents of its own capital are disenfranchised.