Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)
25
Opinion of the Court
ing the “places” and “manner” of holding elections for federal office. An 1810 amendment to the Maryland Constitution 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 Congress 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 Delaware, multiple state constitutions at the time of the founding regulated federal elections by requiring that “[a]ll elections 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 legislature of each state shall direct.” Art. V. The two provisions
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