The Constitution and American Elections

Presidential elections shine the spotlight on the Constitution and its role in shaping American politics and culture like no other regular event in the country’s national life. While the country has frequent and plentiful elections, the election of the president and the vice-president is the only instance in which the Constitution convenes a national electorate to choose a leader.

Yet the Constitution convenes this election amidst characteristic ambiguities regarding voting and elections in the United States. To paraphrase UT Austin adjunct law professor Steve Weinberg in one of our featured video clips, the Constitution is largely silent on the issue of voting, leaving the matter to the states and, eventually, to be taken up by Congress and the courts. Yet another central institution of the electoral system, the Electoral College, remains largely intact from the original Constitution. If presidential elections invite us to view the United States as a nation unified under one executive, the indirect mechanics of the Electoral College, where the Constitution assigns electors to each state based on their total representation in Congress, inevitably turns the national focus back to the individual states.

With the elections looming, we spoke with two experts with different intellectual perspectives on the Constitution for our 2008 addition to the University of Texas at Austin Constitution Day website. Both Steve Bickerstaff, an Adjunct Law Professor at the UT - Austin School of Law, and Zachary Elkins, as Assistant Professor in the Department of Government, discussed various aspects of voting and elections within the framework of the US Constitution.

Excerpts from these interviews are available in captioned versions for viewing on your computer as well as downloadable versions for portable players that will also play in large windows on your desktop. Viewing the segments below requires the QuickTime video player. Download QuickTime.

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The Constitution was essentially silent on the critical issue of voting, vesting authority to the states to regulate the right to vote. Professor Steve Bickerstaff discusses how states placed many limitations on the franchise, and how the right of suffrage was gradually expanded through changes in state laws, constitutional amendments, and legislation like the Voting Rights Act of 1965,

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

Professor Steve Bickerstaff discusses how the electoral system that has developed within the rubric of the Constitution has not been closely copied by other democracies in the world. Some of the most distinctive features that have developed in American system — the Electoral College, the direct election of all members of the legislature, regular redistricting based on the principle of one person-one vote, broad citizenship rights — have not been widely imitated.

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

Professor Steve Bickerstaff discusses how in many democratic systems, the inherent threat redistricting poses to incumbent officeholders means that the redrawing of districts frequently fails to take place in a timely manner. Professor Bickerstaff argues that the involvement of the courts in the process in the United States has helped ensure that districts are redrawn in a timely manner, helping to ensure, in turn, the maintenance of districts with equal populations.

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

Professor Steve Bickerstaff discusses what he sees as the positive impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite criticisms that the Act had a polarizing effect in the country, he argues that it has had the effect of more fully incorporating minority groups into the decision-making process in the United States. The lack of specificity regarding voting and elections in the US Constitution, he explains, has meant that the future application of the Act is subject to the courts’ interpretations, making the implementation of the act “an evolving process.”

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

Professor Zachary Elkins discusses the ways in which the US Constitution influenced constitutions in Latin America. He argues that some of the more widespread influences seem almost arbitrary, like the use of the title “president” for chief executives and the imposition of a minimum age requirements for the office holders. Other more structural elements are also prominent in Latin American constitutions, such as the organization of the legislature into two chambers.

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

The Electoral College functions solely to select the President via an indirect election, and is widely considered one of the major anachronisms remaining in the Constitution. Professor Zachary Elkins explains the factors that contributed to the creation of the Electoral College, and why, despite its many critics, it perseveres as a critical institution in the electoral system created by the Constitution.

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

One of the achievements of the US Constitution is its longevity. Professor Zachary Elkins discusses how the Constitution has been able to last through a paradoxical combination of brevity and a difficult amendment process. He argues that the Constitution serves much more as a framework than do Constitutions that are much longer and more detailed.

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

Professor Zachary Elkins discusses how the Constitution has evolved into a framework that maintains stability but also allows for change generated from both the institutions and society the Constitution fosters. He suggests that over time this dynamic has allowed for improvements to the system in times of crisis.

Watch Clip (300kbs) | m4v

People

Steve Bickerstaff is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law. A former senate parliamentarian and special assistant attorney general, he has been intimately involved in state politics for thirty years. He has represented state and local governments on redistricting and election law matters and has written extensively on these issues. He is retired from the law firm he founded, Bickerstaff, Heath, Pollan, and Caroom.

Zachary Elkins is Assistant Professor of Government at the University of Texas, Austin. He received his B.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on issues of democracy, institutional reform, research methods, and national identity, with an emphasis on cases in Latin America. He is currently completing two book manuscripts, one entitled Designed by Diffusion: Constitutional Reform in Developing Democracies that examines the design and diffusion of democratic institutions, and another entitled the Endurance of National Constitutions that explores the factors that lead to the survival constitutions. His articles have appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and International Organization. With Tom Ginsburg at the University of Chicago, Professor Elkins co-directs both the Comparative Constitutions Project, an NSF-funded initiative to understand the causes and consequences of constitutional choices, and the website constitutionmaking.org, which provides resources and analysis for constitutional drafters throughout the world.