[justiceseeker93]

Amen. Congress should use its express authority under the Constitution’s Elections Clause to mandate that all voting must take place on Election Day, with no early voting or whatnot, and that absentee ballots, if allowed by state law, must be postmarked on election day (not a week before or whatever). If this means that we need to wait a week for absentee votes to be counted, then so be it, but everyone should vote on the same day.

I like your proposal, but I know the Constitution pretty well and am not familiar with an "Elections Clause." Can you clarify this?

[AuH2ORepublican]

I was referring to Article I, section 4, clause 1, which provides that “[t]he times, places and manners of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed by each state by the legislature thereof; but Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing senators.” (That last caveat was put in to clarify that Congress couldn’t dictate that senators would no longer be elected by the state legislature, which was required by the Constitution prior to the adoption of the 17th Amendment in 1913.) Congress legislates pursuant to this clause when it sets Election Day for congressional elections as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, when it approved UOCAVA, etc.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have referred to Article I, section 4, clause 1 as the “Elections Clause,” since the term may be confused with Art. I, sec. 5, cl. 1, which provides that each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its members.