Hello, hello, and welcome. So happy you're here today. I have got some questions from you to answer.

You have been leading me the most interesting voice memos with such thoughtful questions that I think everybody is going to enjoy hearing more about.

So let's dive in. Let's dive into four of your questions today. I think you're gonna love this.

I'm Sharon Neckman and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast.

Okay, question number one comes from Elizabeth.

Hey Sharon, my name is Elizabeth. I had seen that you posted on your Instagram about how DC has three electoral college votes.

You then went on to talk about how electoral college votes are determined and that they're determined by how many representatives that state has in Congress.

And I just was a little confused because I thought DC didn't have any representation or voting representation in Congress.

So I guess are they just given the minimum, which is three or is it calculated different for the district of Columbia? I just wasn't sure.

Thanks.

Great question. Love it. Thank you so much for sending in that question because I think a lot of people probably are wondering the exact same thing.

The chances are good that if you're wondering it, somebody else is wondering it too. So you actually do understand maybe even more than you realize.

The first thing is the number of electoral votes that a state has is determined by its populations eyes.

So big states, more electoral votes, small states, fewer electoral votes, right? The smallest number the state can have is three.

And that's because the number of electoral votes that a state has is equal to the number of senators they have plus the number of representatives they have in the house.

And that smallest number is three. Every state has two senators and the minimum number of representatives that a state can have is one.

And if the state's like say Wyoming have three electoral votes, two senators plus one representative means three electoral votes.

So you get it. That's correct. And then you also correctly made the connection like hold on.

And then you have to use how do we get three electoral votes for Washington DC when they don't have any representing voting representation in Congress. How do they get three. Great question.

And the answer to that question is the 23rd amendment to the Constitution.

The Constitution does set up a system under which states have all this representation in Congress. And then they use that as a method to determine how many electoral votes.

So for most of this country's history, the people of Washington DC did not have a voice in the presidential election. They did not have the ability to vote for president.

...