584. Such a situation arose during the 1876 presidential election in the United States. Challenges to the election results in three states (whose 19 members of the Electoral College were enough to affect the outcome) were entrusted to an ad hoc Electoral Commission not provided for in the US Constitution, but established through a legislative decree issued after the election. The commission was made up of five senators, five members of the House of Representatives and five Supreme Court judges who decided by eight votes to seven in favour of the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, essentially by voting along party lines. The result originally reached by the three states was overturned and a different candidate was declared the winner. Box 8.5. The USA: from decentralized to centralized EDR Tracy Campbell The United States is a federal constitutional republic where the constitutional framework delegates powers not expressly granted to the federal government to the 50 states. Such powers include the organization and conduct of both state and national elections. The US Constitution is explicit with regard to federal elections for the US Congress. Article I, Section 4 of the US Constitution states: ‘The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators’. Other portions of the Constitution and the legislative history of a variety of federally-enacted election legislation (e.g. the Federal Contested Elections Act of 1969) also provide the states with considerable latitude in resolving not only state but federal electoral disputes. Because the regulatory framework for elections in the United States is decentralized, it varies substantially from state to state. Not only do states adopt different laws, regulations and procedures for carrying out these rules, but the states are free to delegate many of these procedures to their local governments – usually counties. It is the county that typically decides such things as the type of voting equipment to employ, the design of the ballot paper, and what procedures (if any) there will be for absentee and provisional voting. Most states have adopted statutory and administrative machinery for resolving electoral disputes, but this machinery varies across states. As election law varies from state to state, the case law concerning electoral dispute resolution also varies. There are of course federal interests in the conduct of elections, particularly when the election at issue concerns federal office. The US Supreme Court’s decision to enter and resolve the disputed 2000 presidential election in Florida is an example of this interest. All recounts were halted upon its decision. Federal election disputes are sometimes resolved by a tribunal other than the Supreme Court. Article I, Section 5 of the US Constitution states that ‘Each House of Congress 191 8. Alternative EDR mechanisms are created and/or an ad hoc body is entrusted with the final resolution of electoral disputes, against which there is no further appeal.