Federal rules for voting

[SpankMe]

US Constitution, Article I, Section 4: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

It seems to me that, based on the above statement in the constitution, the Congress should be able to make a law at the federal level that specifies how U.S. representatives and U.S. senators are elected.

Given the importance of such a matter, is there any barrier to congress specifying that the elections of US reps and sen's shall be done on paper ballots, or some other means with more integrity and "re-countability" than electronic voting machines?

Are there any constitutional experts on here that can describe why this couldn't be done (I mean from the constitutional standpoint and not from the political reality standpoint).

Also, why would they seem to allow congress to "make or alter" voting regulations for US reps and sen's, except for the "place of [choosing] senators? If the states wanted senators to be voted for in some unorthodox place, the congress couldn't regulate that, but they could regulate where voting for representatives takes place?

[branford]

1. Congress could probably regulate the use of paper ballots in federal elections,

although as you recognize, this will probably not occur. Other matters, like eligibility to run for the Senate or House, however, are explicitly set forth in the Constitution.

As to why in Art. 1, Sec. 4, Congress cannot regulate the place of choosing Senators, recall that until ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, Senators were chosen by the state legislatures, not by direct elections. If Congress were able to alter the "place" where Senators were chosen, it would potentially have been a conflict with Art. 1, Sec. 3.

BTW, I'm an attorney, although my area of expertise is commercial litigation, not Constitutional law.

[on point]

2. This is needed. Election rules should apply to 50 states. Not just south

[99th_Monkey]

3. Great idea, but sadly

Congress is now under pretty-much complete control by ReThugs,
thanks in large part to ReThuglican dirty tricks and election fraud.

Too little too late IMHO.

I think Obama needs to add dealing with election fraud a very high priority
over next two years, otherwise I think the whole house of cards we call
Congress will be just another piece of window dressing to perpetuate the
fraud in perpetuity.

In case you are reading this President Obama, here is the sorry-ass list
of ways that GOP are well-known for buggering the vote to insure GOP
"victories" at the polls.

The List:
1) onerous voter ID requirements (see Texas)
2) "Official" misinformation about polling place location, date of election
etc. distributed to deliberately mislead Democratic voters.
3) unbearably long-lines in heavily Democratic precincts
4) "running out of" ballots in ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
5) taking machines off line for "maintenance"
6) "losing" registration records
7) tracking ^above^ and then (in closing hours) hacking electronic-voting
machines (as needed to "close the deal&quot in final stretch.