Hermit wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 7:07 am
Seabass wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:13 am
JimC wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 10:37 pm
What I meant was, even if passed federally, the States may stand on their constitutional rights, which I understand includes effective control of the voting process their way in each state...
Congress has the constitutional authority to legislate how our elections are run. The states would have to comply with federal laws.
Mindful of the numerous comments by our resident right wing nuts to the contrary, I was sceptical about your assertion, so I checked out
this copy of the Constitution of the United States. It only took me just a few minutes to discover that you are exactly right. The relevant text is near the start of the document, namely in Article 1, Section 4, first paragraph:
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.
For all intents and purposes it seems to be a dead letter, though.
Well, as a resident wingnut I guess I should point out that the authority you cite is limited to "Elections for Senators and Representatives."
As usual, it's more complicated than that because the powers are divided between the Feds and the States in different ways for different elections. So Article II, Section 1 - changed by the 12th Amendment - sets out a different division for Presidential elections. State and local elections are another affair with the 10th Amendment provision that "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" balanced with protections governing all elections in the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments.
And then there are the Supreme and lower court decisions trying to clarify this mess of conflicting powers and omissions at the federal level with 50 different State constitutions.
In practice, the States have powers they are jealous of and resist giving up.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Wisdom requires a flexible mind." - Dan Carlin
"If you vote for idiots, idiots will run the country." - Dr. Kori Schake