So, what does the Constitution actually say about elections?
Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution states:
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.
Additionally, there have been five additional Amendments, mainly dealing with who may vote. So clearly, whenever there has been lack of clarity about our elections, we have used a Constitutional Amendment to bring clarity.
Did you know there is a major case involving elections at the US Supreme Court right this moment? It involved the ability of state legislatures to set election law, independent of state courts or governors. It is called "Independent State Legislature Doctrine", and is defined by Ballotpedia this way:
Independent State Legislature theory or doctrine (ISL) states that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the authority to regulate federal elections. Since this power comes directly from the U.S. Constitution – and not state constitutions – state judges, governors, secretaries of state, and other state officials cannot intervene to change federal election rules established by state legislatures, according to the theory. Under the Constitution, checks on state legislatures’ power to regulate federal elections come from federal courts and the U.S. Congress.
This case will be decided this session, and it involved the ability of the previous NC Supreme Court- controlled by Dems- to overrule the NC State Legislature on Federal election issues, like redistricting and voter ID.
Confused? That's exactly my point. We can avoid this. All we need is a Constitutional Amendment to clear up these issues.
All the back and forth, all the legal issues, we can avoid this. Imagine what California's elections would look like with voter ID, and without ballot harvesting?
Could we be looking at a Republican California?
It's time to make our commitment to election integrity a part of our country's fabric- permanently.
