Hi, I'm Senator Mike Lee.
Welcome to "The Constitution Line By Line."
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Today, we're gonna be talking
about Article 1, Section 4.
Article 1, Section 4
is the part of the Constitution
that describes the process by which rules
governing the election of senators,
and representatives are made.
"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 choosing Senators."
"The Congress shall assemble
at least once in every Year,
and such Meeting shall be
on the first Monday in December,
unless they shall by Law
appoint a different Day."
This portion of the Constitution
makes clear that it's the state legislatures
first and foremost,
who get to decide the rules governing
the election of senators and representatives.
This is important because it wouldn't
have of otherwise been clear
who would get to decide.
These are federal lawmakers
playing a federal role,
but the Constitution says, "First and foremost,
"this is a State responsibility."
But they sort of kept their foot in the door.
They made clear that Congress can step in
at any moment and modify those rules.
Given again, that these are federal lawmakers.
It's important to remember
that the subject matter covered
by Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution,
doesn't cover presidential elections.
This is just dealing with the election
of representative and senators
to the US Congress.
It doesn't deal with presidential elections.
Those are handled separately
in Article 2 of the Constitution.
It's also interesting.
This provision specifies
that Congress has to meet at least once
in every year and then provides the default date,
the first Monday in December.
It was as if they contemplated
the possibility that Congress
might not otherwise meet that often.
It didn't necessarily contemplate
that the federal government would be involved
in as many aspects of everyone's life
as it is today.
Today would be considered unthinkable
that Congress would ever go more than a few weeks
without meeting.
But back then it wasn't clear to them
that we would otherwise,
and so they put in a constitutional mandate
specifying that Congress had to meet
at least once a year.
This part of a Constitution
is important today because sometimes people
start to forget the fact that we don't have
a single national election system
in this country.
We instead have 50 different states,
each with their own election laws.
Now some of those have been modified
by federal law,
but for the most part,
each election system is a creation of state law.
It's state laws that for the most part,
decide how these votes take place.
This is important because again,
it underscores the feature
of what this national government is.
It's not a general purpose national government.
It's a limited purpose federal government
where states come together for limited purposes
under a certain set of circumstances,
in order to become one nation.
It's important that states retain their autonomy,
and their sovereignty.
For the simple reason that
from our very beginnings,
we've been a diverse nation,
a nation where there are people
with different preferences,
depending on where they live.
The Founding fathers understood
that Virginians and New Yorkers
wouldn't necessarily want to adopt
the same set of laws.
And yet they understood
that they couldn't continue
to exist as 13 independent nation states,
not when they had just broken away
from their mother country,
the world's greatest superpower at the time.
So they had to come together
for certain limited purposes
for their own survival.
And yet the genius of the system
was that it allowed them to do so
without relinquishing who they were,
and how they operated,
and how most of their laws were made.
This is one of many features
in the Constitution that shows respect,
and deference to each state sovereignty
into this principle of federalism.
That all is retained by the states
that hasn't been voluntarily relinquished
to the federal sovereign.
There are some who have criticized
the way we handle elections in this country,
based on the fact that we have
50 independent systems,
and some complain about the fact that
there is not the kind of uniformity
one could expect.
We had a single national election code.
There are instances where we have either
allowed or disallowed certain kinds of
election related laws to stand.
In Term Limits versus Thornton in 1995,
the Supreme Court struck down
as unconstitutional,
a state law imposed set of term limits
for members of Congress.
The Supreme Court said that
"This is adding to the constitutionally mandated
eligibility requirements for service
in the United States Congress.
And that was therefore outside
of the realm of authority that a state has."
In other circumstances,
state laws have been upheld.
The Supreme Court for example,
has upheld as constitutional.
Laws governing who may register to vote?
How they registered vote?
How they prove their identity and so forth?
A lot of it just depends on whether or not
it's deemed within the state's authority
to manage its own elections.
If on the other hand,
it's determining eligibility requirements
for who may serve,
that's been deemed the prerogative
of the constitution alone,
and not something that the states can mess with.
There are a few things that are controversial
about Article 1, Section 4.
Perhaps chief among them relates
to what's known as gerrymandering
or the drawing of legislative boundaries.
In this case,
in the drawing of congressional boundaries
or congressional districts
within a particular state.
This is something that Congress could in theory,
direct in one way or another if it wanted,
and in some ways it has.
Congress has for instance,
outlawed the use of
at-large congressional districts.
Congress has however,
left to the states the ability to draw their own
congressional district boundaries.
This in turn reflects back
the view that states ought to be able
to decide for themselves
how to conduct elections.
It's also a matter of some controversy,
how individual states run elections,
including how they maintain
their voter registration files.
What it takes to register to vote?
What it takes to actually show up,
and cast a vote once you've been registered?
These are things that by large
are up to the discretion of the individual state.
Some people believe that there
ought to be more robust requirements
regarding the identification
that has to be presented
when you show up to vote.
Some states require that,
others don't require any of at all.
But here again, this is up to each state.
And if a state wants to make certain decisions,
by large it has the ability to do so
under the Constitution.
Generally speaking,
federal law prohibits the use of what
are known as at-large districts,
meaning a district consisting
of the entirety of the state.
The only place where that's allowed
is in a state that based on its population
is entitled to only one representative.
A federal law otherwise prohibits that.
It's an example of where Congress can,
and occasionally does step in,
but for the most part,
leaves it up to the states to decide
how the vote is conducted,
and to decide even the boundaries
of that legislative district.
These really are essential elements
to state sovereignty,
and to the state's ability,
to operate as a state.
Because states have default authority to operate
in this area.
And because Congress,
for the most part stays out
of the conduct of these elections,
how they're actually to be executed,
and carried out.
States have a lot of latitude
to decide things like
how to handle absentee voting.
From one state to another,
you're gonna have different opinions
about how mail-in ballots ought to be handled
or whether they should be allowed.
The bottom line when it comes
to Article 1, Section four,
is that it sets up this dichotomy.
It says that
"The default is States get to decide rules,
governing elections for choosing Representatives,
and Senators in the United states Congress.
But that Congress can step in,
and prescribe rules where it chooses to do so."
Generally speaking, Congress doesn't,
but sometimes it does.
And when it does it's rules control.
They dominate and overtake what the state
has chosen to do in this area.
Thank you for joining us today
to discuss Article 1, Section 4
of the Constitution
in "The Constitution Line By Line."
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