Oversight of Elections
Contours of Federal and State Authority
There is under our Federal system of shared sovereignty a division of jurisdiction and authority that occurs in the case of elections to Federal office under the provisions of the United States Constitution. In the first instance, the terms of Federal offices and the qualifications of candidates eligible for Federal offices are established and fixed by the agreement of the States within the instrument which created those offices, that is, the United States Constitution, and are thus unalterable by the Congress alone or by any State unilaterally.The Constitution expressly provides, however, that the individual States have the authority to administer…
