The 23rd Amendment, however, adopted in 1961, permits residents of the District of Columbia to vote for three electors in the same manner as residents of the states. Through its power of apportioning representatives among the states, Congress determines the number of presidential electors to which each state is entitled. Presidential electors meet in each state at a place designated by the state legislature, usually the state capitol. By decision of Congress, they meet to vote simultaneously in all the states, on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of presidential election years. On January 6, following the meeting of the electors, their votes are counted in the presence of both houses of Congress.
Electoral procedure is unchanged, but the significance of the presidential electors has changed.
As political parties developed and vied for power, party interests became the dominant influences on the votes of the electors. Another development was of even greater importance. Before 1820, most of the state legislatures applied their constitutionally granted power of selecting presidential electors by appointing them. But as suffrage in the U.S. was broadened after 1800 and the electorate began to exercise greater political influence, the states instituted the direct, popular election of presidential electors. By 1828 this practice had been adopted in all the states except South Carolina, where it was not instituted until 1868.