Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf
Page Number: 30.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

25 

Opinion of the Court 

ing the “places” and “manner” of holding elections for fed-
eral office.  An 1810 amendment to the Maryland Constitu-
tion likewise embodied regulations falling within the scope 
of the Elections and Electors Clauses.  Article XIV provided
that  every  qualified  citizen  “shall  vote,  by  ballot, . . .  for 
electors of the President and Vice-President of the United 
States, [and] for Representatives of this State in the Con-
gress  of  the  United  States.”    If  the  Elections  Clause  had 
vested exclusive authority in state legislatures, unchecked 
by state courts enforcing provisions of state constitutions,
these  clauses  would  have  been  unenforceable  from  the 
start. 

Besides the two specific provisions in Maryland and Del-
aware, multiple state constitutions at the time of the found-
ing regulated federal elections by requiring that “[a]ll elec-
tions shall be by ballot.”  Ga. Const., Art. IV, §2 (1789); see 
also, e.g., Pa. Const., Art. III, §2 (1790); Ky. Const., Art. III,
cl. 2 (1792); Tenn. Const., Art. III, §3 (1796); Ohio Const., 
Art.  IV,  §2  (1803);  La.  Const.,  Art.  VI,  §13  (1812).    These 
provisions directed the “manner” of federal elections within
the  meaning  of  the  Elections  Clause,  as  Madison  himself 
explained at the Constitutional Convention.  See 2 Farrand 
240  (“Whether  the  electors  should  vote  by  ballot  or  vivâ
voce”  falls  within  the  “great  latitude”  of  “regulating  the 
times places & manner of holding elections”).

The legislative defendants discount this evidence.  They
argue  that  those  “by  ballot”  provisions  spoke  only  “to  the
offices that were created by” state constitutions, and not to
the  federal  offices  to  which  the  Elections  Clause  applies.
Tr.  of  Oral  Arg.  18.  We  find  no  textual  hook  for  that 
strained reading.  “All” meant then what it means now. 

In  addition,  the  Framers  did  not  write  the  Elections 
Clause  on  a  blank  slate—they  instead  borrowed  from  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  which  provided  that  “delegates 
shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legisla-
ture of each state shall direct.”  Art. V.  The two provisions