Opinion ID: 774302
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Federal Elections Statutes

Text: 22 In 1872 Congress established a national uniform election day for choosing members of the House of Representatives by enacting 2 U.S.C. § 7, which provides: 23 The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter. 24 Upon ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, Congress adopted a similar provision respecting the election of Senators: 25 At the regular election held in any State next preceding the expiration of the term for which any Senator was elected to represent such State in Congress, at which election a Representative to Congress is regularly by law to be chosen, a United States Senator from said State shall be elected by the people thereof for the term commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter. 26 2 U.S.C. § 1. Likewise Congress has set the same date for the selection of presidential electors: The electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed, in each State, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every fourth year succeeding every election of a President and Vice President. 3 U.S.C. § 1. In combination these provisions mandate[] holding all elections for Congress and the Presidency on a single day throughout the Union. Foster, 522 U.S. at 69-70. 2 27 Although these statutes clearly establish a uniform Federal Election Day throughout the nation, the omission of a definition of the term election has led the Supreme Court to comment on the opacity of the statutory language at issue in this case, particularly regarding the precise acts that the statutes require a State to perform on that day. Foster, 522 U.S. at 72. Accordingly, we turn to the statutes' legislative history, on which the plaintiffs greatly rely, for guidance. See Schroyer v. Frankel, 197 F.3d 1170, 1174 (6th Cir. 1999) (When the language of a provision is ambiguous, we look to the legislative history of the statute in question to ascertain its confines.) (citing Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 896 (1984)). 28 By establishing a uniform date for holding federal elections, Congress sought to remedy more than one evil arising from the election of members of congress occurring at different times in the different states. Ex Parte Yarbrough, 110 U.S. 651, 661 (1884). Specifically, a review of the legislative history of these provisions demonstrates that Congress wanted to prevent States that voted early from unduly influencing those voting later, to combat fraud by minimizing the opportunity for voters to cast ballots in more than one election, and to remove the burden of voting in multiple elections in a single year. Love, 90 F.3d at 1029; Busbee v. Smith, 549 F. Supp. 494, 524 (D.D.C. 1982), aff'd, 459 U.S. 1166 (1983). These objectives reflect the importance voting played in the political debates of the Reconstruction era. Voting Integrity Project, Inc. v. Keisling, ___ F.3d ___, ___, 2001 WL 770384, at -4 (9th Cir. July 11, 2001) (placing congressional debates over enactment of 2 U.S.C. § 7 and allowing voting over multiple days in their historical context). 29 In advancing these rationales, proponents expressed their understanding of what establishing a national, uniform federal election day meant. Representative Butler of Massachusetts, who authored the 1872 law, articulated his aim in sponsoring the legislation: The object of this amendment is to provide a uniform time of electing Representatives in Congress . . . . But on account of the facility for colonization and repeating among the large central States, New York holding its election in November, and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana holding their elections in October, the privilege is allowed the border States, if any man is so disposed, of throwing voters across from one into the other. I think it will be fair for everybody that on the day when one votes all should vote, and that the whole question should be decided then. 30 Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. 112 (1871) (emphasis added). Representative Butler further elaborated: Unless we do fix some time at which, as a rule, Representatives shall be elected, it will be in the power of each State to fix upon a different day, and we may have a canvass going on all over the Union at different times. It gives some states undue advantage. It gives some parties undue advantage. 31 Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. 141 (1871). 32 In congressional debate over establishing a single national election day, the Senate defeated an amendment that would have permitted voting for Representatives over multiple days in States that conducted elections for their own officers on more than one day. Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. 676-77 (1871). Arguing against the amendment, Senator Trumbull of New Jersey explained: 33 I think the same day should be fixed throughout the country for the election of members of Congress . . . . [I]n as much as in some of the States they vote for several days and have but one place for voting in a county, it was suggested that we ought to extend the time of voting for members of Congress as long as it is extended for voting for other officers. I do not know now, however, that there will be any particular necessity for this amendment . . . . There is no provision confining the election of members of Congress to a single day until 1876, and there will be time enough for the states to conform their legislation to the law which will take effect in 1876. I am not sure now that this amendment is necessary at all. I rather think that it is not. 34 Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. 676 (1871) (emphasis added). 35 In 1872 Congress amended 3 U.S.C. § 1 to allow States to conduct balloting for presidential electors over more than one day in that year's presidential election. Act of May 23, 1872, ch. 198, 17 Stat. 157. 3 Congress enacted this provision as a one-time exception to the statutory and constitutional requirement for a uniform day for selection of electors to address the circumstances of Reconstruction-era Texas. Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. 3407-08 (1872). Representative Giddings of Texas summarized the situation in his home State: 36 Mr. Speaker, the passage of this bill, so far as the State of Texas is concerned, is an absolute necessity. By the law of the State, as now in force, but one place of voting is allowed in each county. The counties are large. Some voters have to travel in some of the frontier counties from thirty to seventy-five miles to get to the voting place. The Legislature of our State cannot convene until after the next election. There is no legislative body at present in existence there. An election held in one day in the State of Texas under the present State law would be simply a farce. It is a matter of impossibility to poll at one place the entire vote of a county, even if the people could be gathered at the place in one day . . . . The passage of this bill is an absolute necessity in order to secure a full and fair election in Texas. No legislative change can be made in the State law between now and [federal election day] from the fact no Legislature can convene. The time allowed the Legislature has expired. There is no legislative body in Texas, and none can convene until November next, and by the State law that election shall occur at the same time as the election for presidential electors. 37 Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. 3408 (1872).