Download Free Elections The Scope Of Congressional Authority In Election Administration Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Elections The Scope Of Congressional Authority In Election Administration and write the review.

Events surrounding the last presidential election have led to intense national interest in voting processes and the administration of elections. As part of the broad congressional interest in this issue, we received a joint inquiry from Senator Trent Lott, Republican Leader; Senator Tom Daschle, Democratic Leader; Senator Mitch McConnell, Chairman, and Senator Christopher Dodd, Ranking Member, of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. The Senators asked that we review the current federal role, and limitations thereof, in the administration of elections.
Events surrounding the last presidential election have led to intense national interest in voting processes and the administration of elections. As part of the broad congressional interest in this issue, we received a joint inquiry from Senator Trent Lott, Republican Leader; Senator Tom Daschle, Democratic Leader; Senator Mitch McConnell, Chairman, and Senator Christopher Dodd, Ranking Member, of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. The Senators asked that we review the current federal role, and limitations thereof, in the administration of elections.
Events surrounding the 2000 Presidential election have led to increased scrutiny of voting procedures in the United States, including efforts to establish national standards for issues such as the administration of voter registration, balloting, tabulating and reporting election results. This report focuses on the constitutional authority and limitations relevant to Congress standardizing these and other election procedures. A policy evaluation of these different options is, however, beyond the scope of this report. The Congress' authority to regulate a particular election may vary depending on whether that election is for the Presidency, the House, the Senate, or for state and local positions. Further, there may be variation in whether a particular aspect of elections, such as balloting procedures, is amenable to regulation. Consequently, evaluating the authority to establish uniform election procedures would appear to require an examination of a variety of different proposals and scenarios. Although the Constitution is silent on various aspects of the voting process, the Constitution seems to anticipate that states would be primarily responsible for establishing election procedures. Federal authority to also regulate federal elections, however, is specifically provided for in the Constitution. There are two main provisions at issue - Article I, section 4, cl. 1, which provides Congress the authority to set the "Times, Places and Manner" of congressional elections, and Article II, section 1, cl. 4, which provides that Congress may designate the "Time" for the choosing of Presidential Electors. Congress' power is at its most broad in the case of House elections, which have historically always been decided by a system of popular voting. Congressional power over Senate elections, while almost as broad as it is for House elections, contains one exception - that Congress may not regulate "the Places of chusing Senators." The power of Congress to regulate Presidential elections, is not, however, as clearly established as the power over House and Senate elections. As noted above, the text of the Constitution provides the Congress only the limited power to designate the "Time" of the choosing of Presidential Electors. The case law on this issue is, however, ambiguous, and Congress's regulatory authority over presidential elections seems to be more extensive than might appear based on the text of Article II, section 1, cl. 4. The Constitution does not grant the Congress general legislative authority to regulate the manner and procedures used for elections at the state and local level. The Congress, however, does have authority under the Civil War Amendments, the 19th, 24th and the 26th Amendments to prevent discrimination in access to voting, and has exercised that power extensively over state and local elections, as well as federal elections. The Congress also has expansive authority to spend money for the general welfare, and allocation of such grant monies could be conditioned on compliance by state or local officials with national standards for election procedures.
Courts testing the constitutionality of federal campaign finance laws usually focus on First Amendment issues. More fundamental, however, is the question of whether campaign finance laws are within Congress's enumerated power to regulate the "Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections." This Article is an objective examination into the intended scope of this congressional power, using numerous sources overlooked by other legal writers. The Article concludes that the intended scope of the power was wide enough to authorize most modern congressional election statutes, but not wide enough to support modern federal campaign finance laws.
Events surrounding the last presidential election raised concerns about the people, processes, and technology used to administer elections. GAO has already reported on the scope of congressional authority in election administration and voting assistance to military and overseas citizens. This report focuses on the status and use of federal voting equipment standards, which define minimum functional and performance requirements for voting equipment. The standards define minimum life-cycle management processes for voting equipment developers to follow, such as quality assurance. No federal agency has been assigned explicit statutory responsibility for developing voting equipment standards; however, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) developed voluntary standards for computer-based systems in 1990, and Congress has provided funding for this effort. No federal agency is responsible for testing voting equipment against the federal standards. Instead, the National Association of State Election Directors accredits independent test authorities who test voting equipment against the standards.
Conventional wisdom holds that the federal government plays relatively little role in U.S. campaigns and elections. Although states retain authority for most aspects of election administration, a closer look reveals that the federal government also has steadily increased its presence in campaigns and elections in the past 50 years. Altogether, dozens of congressional committees and federal agencies could be involved in federal elections under current law. Congress faces a complex mix of traditional oversight areas with developing ones throughout the elections field. Reports of foreign interference during the 2016 election cycle, and concerns about future interference, have raised the profile of campaigns and elections policy in Congress, at federal agencies, and beyond. As Congress considers these and other developing issues, this report provides the House and Senate with a resource for first understanding the current campaigns and elections regulatory structure. The report addresses those areas of law and public policy that most directly and routinely affect American campaigns and elections. This includes six broad categories of law through which Congress has assigned various agencies roles in regulating or supporting campaigns, elections, or both. These are campaign finance; election administration; election security; redistricting; qualifications and contested elections; and voting rights. No single federal agency is in charge of the federal role in campaigns and elections, just as multiple statutes address various aspects of the field. The Election Assistance Commission and Federal Election Commission are devoted entirely to campaigns and elections. Congress has charged other departments and agencies-such as the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and component organizations comprising the Intelligence Community-primarily with responsibilities for other areas of public policy, but also with supporting or administering campaigns and elections policy in specific cases. Other agencies or statutes may be relevant in specific cases. This report does not track legislation that proposes changes in the policy environment discussed herein.