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28 Vt. L. Rev. 373 (2003-2004)
Congressional Power over Presidential Elections: The Constitutionality of the Help America Vote Act under Article II, Section 1

handle is hein.journals/vlr28 and id is 383 raw text is: CONGRESSIONAL POWER OVER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT UNDER ARTICLE II, SECTION 1 Martin J. Siegel* Crimes against the ballot have become so numerous and so serious that the attention of all legislative bodies has been turned with anxious solicitude to the means of preventing them, and to the object of securing purity in elections and accuracy in the returns by which their result is ascertained.' After the current counting, -it is likely legislative bodies nationwide will examine ways to improve the mechanisms and machinery for voting.2 INTRODUCTION Congress traditionally responds to electoral crises. The disputed elections of 1800 and 1876 led to constitutional amendment and statutory changes.3 During Reconstruction, Congress reacted to rampant violence and intimidation against former slaves with laws giving federal judges and marshals broad power to squelch interference.4 In the 1960s, Congress reacted to the civil rights movement and fitally confronted the pervasive suppression of African-American voters by enacting the Voting Rights Act.5 And as the Supreme Court predicted in Bush v. Gore, the 2000 presidential election has given rise to federal legislation aimed at remedying the obvious defects apparent in Florida and elsewhere.6 * The author is a partner in the Watts Law Firm in Houston, Texas. In 2000-2001, as a staff member working in the U.S. Senate, he worked extensively on proposed election reform legislation. 1. In re Coy, 127 U.S. 731, 755 (1888). 2. Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 104 (2000). 3. The Twelfth Amendment was adopted following the 1800 Election. Congress enacted the Electoral Count Act to resolve disputed presidential elections following the crisis that flowed from the election of 1876. See infra note 115 and accompanying text. 4. For a description of the Enforcement Act of 1870 and Congress' answer to the terror visited on African-Americans in the former Confederacy following the Civil War, see infra Part II.A. 5. Voting Rights Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-110, 79 Stat. 445 (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. §§ 1971, 1973 to 1973bb-1 (2000)). 6. Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. at 104.

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