The Constitution provides for the states to regulate the time, place, and manner for elections to Congress but also authorizes Congress to make regulations regarding such matters. (See Article I, Section IV — and you thought that writing contradictory laws was a modern invention of attorneys)
For the most part, election laws including those governing congressional elections are made by state legislatures (e.g. when you file, how you file, where people vote, how parties nominate candidates, when primary elections are held).
Congress has passed a relatively small number of laws related to Congressional elections. Most important of these laws are the statutes establishing a uniform election date for regular (i.e. for full-term) elections to Congress — the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November. See 2 U.S.C 1 ("At the regular election held in any State next preceding the expiration of the term for which any Senator was elected to represent such State in Congress, at which election a Representative to Congress is regularly by law to be chosen, a United States Senator shall be elected . . . .") and 2 U.S.C. 7 ("The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even-numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress. . . . ").
Congress has also passed laws governing voter registration, voting machinery, campaign finance, and protecting voter rights.
June 6th, 2010 at 7:54 am
Thats all in the constitution of the United States. So, I guess, the founding fathers.
References :
June 6th, 2010 at 8:20 am
The Constitution provides for the states to regulate the time, place, and manner for elections to Congress but also authorizes Congress to make regulations regarding such matters. (See Article I, Section IV — and you thought that writing contradictory laws was a modern invention of attorneys)
For the most part, election laws including those governing congressional elections are made by state legislatures (e.g. when you file, how you file, where people vote, how parties nominate candidates, when primary elections are held).
Congress has passed a relatively small number of laws related to Congressional elections. Most important of these laws are the statutes establishing a uniform election date for regular (i.e. for full-term) elections to Congress — the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November. See 2 U.S.C 1 ("At the regular election held in any State next preceding the expiration of the term for which any Senator was elected to represent such State in Congress, at which election a Representative to Congress is regularly by law to be chosen, a United States Senator shall be elected . . . .") and 2 U.S.C. 7 ("The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even-numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress. . . . ").
Congress has also passed laws governing voter registration, voting machinery, campaign finance, and protecting voter rights.
References :
June 6th, 2010 at 8:52 am
The individual States make the decisions about when they will elect Federal office holders for Congress. (Article 1, Section 4, paragraph 1, of the Constitution.)
Originally, Senators were appointed by State legislatures (Article 1, Section 3, paragraph 1) but that was changed by the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, to allow direct election by the voters of the States.
States generally hold their Federal elections on the same dates countrywide and that coincides with the Presidential election in the years when we elect a president. The primary elections are on various dates preceding the general election. Louisiana holds its open primary on the date of the presidential election with a December run-off if necessary.
Polling places and the actual ballots are usually designated and designed at the city or county level to accommodate local offices.
Under the 10th Amendment, the States have the power to regulate their own elections. Any "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
References :
US Constitution