The Evolving Federal Role in Election Administration

Despite the different developmental paths of the states, they all exist within a federal system that pulls them toward uniformity, particularly with regard to political participation. This tension is an essential dynamic of electoral policy and administration in the United States. The states have typically been the sources of innovation; most national policies have copied innovations already existing in some states and extended them to all states. But federal power over elections is not unfettered. This chapter uses key amendments, court rulings, and statutes from the time of the original US Constitution through the adoption of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) to explain the emerging balance between state and federal authority with respect to voting rights. The following chapter completes the federal framework, as it exists today, based mainly on the VRA and subsequent federal statutes.