“Making these changes at the Constitutional level will prevent their being overturned by the courts.”
Amendments to the Constitution are much more difficult to accomplish than legislation. To prevent the Supreme Court from interfering with the intent of Congressional legislation the legislation should declare it exempt from appellate jurisdiction IAW Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution. I don’t know why Congress doesn’t include the exemption more frequently to prevent partisan manipulation by the Supreme Court.
“We Need an Amendment to the Constitution That Will Increase Voter Participation While Securing Our Elections”
Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution authorizes the state legislatures to prescribe the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives but Congress by law may alter such regulations. Article II, Section 1 specifies that the state legislatures shall determine the manner that the POTUS and Vice-POTUS electors are appointed. Article I, Section 4 might be interpreted as authorizing transferring control of elections from the states to the federal government.
In my opinion most of the elements of the proposed election process amendment are unnecessary.
1: Polls are open for extended hours allowing citizens to vote before or after work. Making election day a federal holiday will force many companies to pay holiday pay to their employees and may not increase voter turn out.
2: Mail-in voting automatically authorizes early voting.
3: Many states allow mail-in voting and some states require it. This trend will probably continue reducing the supposed need to make election day a holiday.
4: Polling location requirements based on a fixed number of people is a poor specification. A better requirement would be a maximum transportation time and wait time to vote.
5: Voter registration requirements: U.S. citizenship; 18 years old on or before election day; and a resident of the state. Proof should be required.
6: The purpose of the Federal Election Commission is to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of presidential elections. The agency has no expertise or authority associated with conducting elections. While I oppose shifting administration of elections from the states to the federal government a more appropriate agency would be the Election Assistance Commission.
7: Your proposal gives the federal government authority and responsibility of conducting elections but here you require the states to implement voter identification. This is a potential conflict of authority and funding.
8: This is unnecessary if the amendment includes an introduction station that administration of elections is the responsibility of the federal government.
9: Some states restore voting privileges after a convicted felon serves his/her sentence and some don’t. This will be a controversial issue jeopardizing amendment ratification.
10: I’d rather have unprepared, ignorant voters not vote rather than force them to vote.
11: The trend is for all states to either have paper ballots or direct recording electronic (DRE) systems with paper trail. By 2020 there should only be a few states not meeting the trend.
