Dakota Beacon

During the period from the drafting and proposal of the federal Constitution in September, 1787, to its ratification in 1789 there was an intense debate on ratification. The principal arguments in favor of it were stated in the series written by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay called the Federalist Papers, although they were not as widely read as numerous independent local speeches and articles.

The arguments against ratification appeared in various forms, by various authors, most of whom used a pseudonym. Collectively, these writings have become known as the Anti-Federalist Papers. They contain warnings of dangers from tyranny that weaknesses in the proposed Constitution did not adequately provide against, and while some of those weaknesses were corrected by adoption of the Bill of Rights, others remain today.

The Federalist and Anti-federalist Papers reveal, in detail, the deliberations surrounding the creation of our Constitution in the late 1780s. They reveal the intent of the founders on both sides of the issue of federalism (a union of partially self-governing states) vs unitarism (all powers vested in a central government).*

From the excerpts from the Federalist Papers and Anti-federalist Papers listed below, it is obvious that the founders understood the right to vote to be fundamental to republican government, that voters should be voting within the county where each resided, that enough voting places should be available such that voting is convenient, that a time of elections should be set, and that such time be consistent from election cycle to election cycle. Election judges (and voters themselves) within a county would, by such consistency of repetition, be alert to attempts at a multitude of forms of election fraud. Simple papers ballots facilitated honest re-counts and election evening results were secured (locked in boxes and placed in a safe) within each county. The only difference today should be the instant reporting of each county's results to each state's secretary of state rather than transportation by currier over many miles for days, weeks or even months.

Further, the founders included two bodies within the federal congress. They believed that a single legislative body, a House of Representatives would allow sudden impulsive and violent passions seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions. A second, less numerous and more experienced body, the Senate, would prevent such ill-advised legislation.

They knew that voters would have to depend upon the information of intelligent men in whom they would confide. Such men would reveal the complexion of public measures to be considered from publicly available papers, from correspondence with the voters' representatives, and from other local citizens.

The members of each state legislature would act as sentinels over the federal bureaucracy by developing regular and effectual systems of intelligence that reveal behaviors of such bureaucrats and communicate such knowledge with voters. The competition over power among legislators would be reliable to provide voting citizens with multiple specific viewpoints of public measures to be considered.

Let us now discuss what the founders did not intend with regard to voting. They did not intend that voters perform their duty other than in person, so as to verify their visually documented identity, residence, age, and citizenship. They did not intend that voting should occur on multiple dates or over an extended period of time, so that the voters would all be voting under the same surrounding events and circumstances. They did not intend that the time of voting would change from year to year, because they desired to foster familiarity with the time and manner of the election toward repetitive participation of qualified voters. They did not intend that voting could be delayed, for any reason, because they were familiar with such delays being used by the King of England to perpetuate the status quo. And perhaps most importantly, they did not intend voting to be easily accomplished by mail, because to do so would be to unduly delay the tabulation of results, allowing mysterious “boxes of ballots” to be “found” in automobile trunks, corners of government offices, and only God knows where else!

Our founders anticipated the many ways in which elections could be manipulated and stated their views in both the Federalist Papers and Anti-federalist Papers. It is now up to each of us to show up at our state legislatures while they are in session toward returning all election laws to be in strict adherence to the wishes of our founders. Each and every election must be held on a single predictable day, at a convenient number of voting places within each county, with all voters arriving at those voting places with proof of their identity, age, residency, and citizenship.

Exemptions to allow “vote by mail” for those qualified voters who cannot physically travel to their voting site or who will be absent during the date of the election must include proof required of voters at the site, along with the signature of another qualified voter verifying the facts surrounding the exemption and must be mailed by certified mail by such qualified voter or the voter requesting such exemption.

To do otherwise would be to continue to allow our elections to be manipulated by unscrupulous politicians who want only election and re-election while exhibiting little or no desire or respect for government “of the people and by the people”.

* A pure “democracy” is “rule of the majority”, direct voting where the majority (over 50%) of voters determines the outcome and the minority has no say in the matter. In a “democratic republic”, such as our United States of America, the voters elect representatives to vote for or against proposed legislation on their behalf. In the USA, all legislation must first pass the House of Representatives (the “people's house”), where Representatives are elected from 435 districts of approximately equal population. The legislation must then pass the Senate, where 100 Senators are elected, two from each of our 50 states. After the legislation passes both the House of Representatives and the Senate (representing the two “chambers” of the “legislative branch”), the President (representing the “executive branch”) may either sign or veto the legislation; a veto may be overridden by a two-thirds majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Finally, the Supreme Court (representing the “judicial branch”) may be called upon to determine the constitutionality of the legislation. Supreme Court justices are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

References:

The Federalist No 52 The House of Representatives

The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government. It was incumbent on the convention, therefore, to define and establish this right in the Constitution. To have left it open for the occasional regulation of the Congress, would have been improper for the reason just mentioned. To have submitted it to the legislative discretion of the States, would have been improper for the same reason; and for the additional reason that it would have rendered too dependent on the State governments that branch of the federal government which ought to be dependent on the people alone.

The Federalist No 61 Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of Members

THE more candid opposers of the provision respecting elections, contained in the plan of the convention, when pressed in argument, will sometimes concede the propriety of that provision; with this qualification, however, that it ought to have been accompanied with a declaration, that all elections should be had in the counties where the electors resided.

Suppose, for instance, the city of Albany was to be appointed the sole place of election for the county and district of which it is a part, would not the inhabitants of that city speedily become the only electors of the members both of the Senate and Assembly for that county and district? Can we imagine that the electors who reside in the remote subdivisions of the counties of Albany, Saratoga, Cambridge, etc., or in any part of the county of Montgomery, would take the trouble to come to the city of Albany, to give their votes for members of the Assembly or Senate, sooner than they would repair to the city of New York, to participate in the choice of the members of the federal House of Representatives? The alarming indifference discoverable in the exercise of so invaluable a privilege under the existing laws, which afford every facility to it, furnishes a ready answer to this question. And, abstracted from any experience on the subject, we can be at no loss to determine, that when the place of election is at an INCONVENIENT DISTANCE from the elector, the effect upon his conduct will be the same whether that distance be twenty miles or twenty thousand miles.

But there remains to be mentioned a positive advantage which will result from this disposition, and which could not as well have been obtained from any other: I allude to the circumstance of uniformity in the time of elections for the federal House of Representatives. It is more than possible that this uniformity may be found by experience to be of great importance to the public welfare, both as a security against the perpetuation of the same spirit in the body, and as a cure for the diseases of faction.

And it may be added that the supposed danger of a gradual change being merely speculative, it would have been hardly advisable upon that speculation to establish, as a fundamental point, what would deprive several States of the convenience of having the elections for their own governments and for the national government at the same epochs.

The Federalist No 62 The Senate

The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions. Examples on this subject might be cited without number; and from proceedings within the United States, as well as from the history of other nations.

The Federalist No 84 Certain General and Miscellaneous Objections to the Constitution Considered and Answered

What are the sources of information by which the people in Montgomery County must regulate their judgment of the conduct of their representatives in the State legislature? Of personal observation they can have no benefit. This is confined to the citizens on the spot. They must therefore depend on the information of intelligent men, in whom they confide; and how must these men obtain their information? Evidently from the complexion of public measures, from the public prints, from correspondences with their representatives, and with other persons who reside at the place of their deliberations. This does not apply to Montgomery County only, but to all the counties at any considerable distance from the seat of government.

The executive and legislative bodies of each State will be so many sentinels over the persons employed in every department of the national administration; and as it will be in their power to adopt and pursue a regular and effectual system of intelligence, they can never be at a loss to know the behavior of those who represent their constituents in the national councils, and can readily communicate the same knowledge to the people. Their disposition to apprise the community of whatever may prejudice its interests from another quarter, may be relied upon, if it were only from the rivalship of power.

Anti-federalist Paper No 52 On the Guarantee of Congressional Biennial Elections

The depravity of human nature, illustrated by examples from history, will warrant us to say, it may be possible, if not probable, that the congress may be composed of men, who will wish to burden and oppress the people. In such case, will not their inventions be fruitful enough to devise occasions for postponing the elections? And if they can do this once, they can twice; if they can twice, they can thrice, so by degrees render themselves absolute and perpetual. Or, if they choose, they have another expedient. They can alter the place of holding elections. They can say, whatever the legislature of this state may order to the contrary, that all the elections of our representatives shall be made at Mechias, or at Williamstown. Consequently, nine- tenths of the people will never vote. And if this should be thought a measure favorable to their reelection, or the election of some tool for their mercenary purposes, we doubt not it will be thus ordered.