NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT AND QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTING TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1961 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9:30 a.m. in room 457, Old Senate Office Building, Senator Estes Kefauver (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Kefauver and Keating. Also present: James C. Kirby, Jr., counsel for the subcommittee, and Angelina T. Gomez, clerk. Senator KEFAUVER. The meeting will come to order. To begin with, I have a brief opening statement for the record: The widespread dissatisfaction with our elective process is evidenced by the number and scope of the proposals under consideration at these hearings. Each is an effort to remove some obstacle which prevents or endangers full expression of the popular will through the ballot box. The vitality of our democracy has increased in direct proportion to participation in voting and effectiveness of the people's voice in the election of public officials. The constitutional amendments following the War Between the States, the 19th amendment granting women's suffrage, and the recent extension of the vote to the District of Columbia, are milestones on the road to fulfillment of democracy's promise of government of, by, and for the people. But there remain serious obstacles which keep our elective process from fully carrying out its intended purpose. Among these are our outmoded methods of nominating and electing the President and restrictions upon voting rights which have no place in 20th century America. Defenders of the electoral college are hard to find. No less than 20 Members of the U.S. Senate have introduced proposals before us today which are careful attempts to correct the inequities and dangers of this outmoded relic. Originally adopted as a compromise, the electoral college resulted from a distrust of the people and conditions of geography and communications which no longer exist. Despite its confusion and uncertainties, by sheer luck it has managed in most instances to elect a President who reasonably reflected the choice of a majority of the people. But this good fortune has lulled us into inaction after each election and the system has continued from one election to the next. Every 4 years the electoral college is a loaded pistol pointed at our system of government. Its continued existence 1 is a game of Russian roulette. Once its antiquated procedures trigger a loaded cylinder, it may be too late for the needed corrections. History clearly demonstrates the hazards of the system. The most dramatic is, of course, the disputed Hayes-Tilden election of 1876, which put the country on the verge of civil war. Edward Stanwood, in summarizing this bitter spectacle, wrote: It is to be hoped that the patriotism of the American people and their love of peace may never again be put to so severe a test as that to which they were subjected in 1876 and 1877. More recently, we have seen electors violate their popular mandates and vote in the electoral college for candidates other than those selected by the people of their States-a right which is granted to electors by the Constitution. In 1960, we saw an unsuccessful, but serious move to withhold a State's electoral votes from President Kennedy unless he made local concessions and bargained for them. Millions of citizens lose their votes as completely as if they had never been cast because of the tradition of unit voting which gives all a State's electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of how narrow his margin. Hanging over every close election is the nightmarish specter of the election being thrown into the House of Representatives where each State would have one vote. This has happened twice and the possibility lurks in the wings of every election. It has been the announced goal of third-party movements in recent years. We cannot assume that U.S. Presidents for the space age can continue to go into office in the oxcart furnished by the electoral college. It should have been changed long ago. The first time election in the House happened was in 1804 in the Jefferson-Burr election. The second time was in 1824 when Andrew Jackson received the most popular votes and most electoral_votes, over Crawford and Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. In the House of Representatives, amid rumors of trades and collusion, the House elected John Qincy Adams as President. Now is the time for serious and nonpartisan study of this problem. Now is the time for action. The various proposals before the subcommittee dealing with the electoral college are all serious efforts to bring our principal office closer to the popular will. As a result of these hearings, I hope we will be able to report out an amendment which remedies the evils of the electoral college and which will be acceptable to the Congress and three-fourths of the State legislatures. But reforming the electoral college deals with only part of the problem. The general election offers to the people only the candidates who weather the stormy sea of the nominating process. Many share the chairman's long opinion that the nominating conventions dominated by political party machinery are a poor means of narrowing the choice which the American people must make. Three proposals before the subcommittee concern nomination by presidential preference primaries. They, too, are efforts to perfect our system of elections and move us further toward the fulfillment of democracy. In every election there are millions of adult American citizens who are barred from participating in any method of election. They are those who are turned away from the polls because of unfair or tech nical restrictions upon their right to vote. Several proposals are directed at qualifications upon voting. Sixty-seven Senators have joined in a proposal which continues the long fight to abolish the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting, so that no American citizen must pay for the privilege of voting. Another barrier to the ballot box is the maze of local residence requirements for voting in the various States. These are outmoded and unjust in their application to our increasingly mobile population. It is reliably estimated that 8 million adult citizens were disenfranchised in the 1960 presidential election because they could not meet State, county, or precinct residence requirements. Many of these had moved across State lines prior to the election but did not meet the residence requirements of their new States and were not permitted to vote by absentee ballot in their old States. The chairman has introduced a resolution which offers a solution to this problem. It has become increasingly clear that citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 not only have a great stake in the results of elections, but that in many instances they are better informed, more aware of public problems, and more idealistic in their attitudes than are many of their elders. Four proposed amendments would extend the right to vote to persons 18 years of age. In these hearings, the subcommittee will receive not only the views of Members of Congress, but those of political and governmental leaders throughout the country, distinguished political scientists and others who wish to be heard. I hope that action will result which moves our Federal elections system closer to its intended purpose, that of giving all our citizens an effective voice in democracy. The face which America holds to the world must leave no room for doubt that our elected leaders speak for all the American people. Now, Mr. Kirby, you have some matters to submit for the record and statements to make. Mr. KIRBY. First, I should like to submit the various resolutions which are the subject of the hearings. Senator KEFAUVER. They will be printed in the record. Mr. KIRBY. And then one-paragraph summaries of the principal provisions of the resolutions. Senator KEFAUVER. Let the summaries come after each resolution. (The full texts of the resolutions, together with their respective summaries, follow :) S.J. RES. 1 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid for all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States: "ARTICLE "SECTION 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be nominated and elected as hereinafter provided. "SEC. 2. The official candidates of political parties for President and Vice President shall be nominated at a primary election by direct popular vote. Voters in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature, but, in the primary election each voter shall be eligible to vote only in the primary of the party of his registered affiliation. The time of such primary election shall be the same throughout the United States, and, unless the Congress shall by law appoint a different day, such primary election shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August in the year preceding the expiration of the regular term of President and Vice President. No person shall be a candidate for nomination for President or Vice President except in the primary of the party of his registered affiliation, and his name shall be on that party's ballot in all the States if he shall have filed a petition at the seat of the Government of the United States with the Secretary of State, which petition shall be valid only if (1) it is determined by the Secretary of State to have been signed on or after the first day of January of the year in which the next primary election for President and Vice President is to be held by a number of qualified voters, in any or all of the several States, equal in number to at least 1 per centum, but not more than 2 per centum, of the total number of popular votes cast throughout the United States for all candidates for President (or, in the case of the primary election first held after the ratification of this article, for electors of President and Vice President) in the most recent previous presidential election, and (2) it is filed with the Secretary of State not later than the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June of the year in which the next primary election for President and Vice President is to be held. No person's name shall appear on the ballot in any primary election as a candidate for nomination for both President and Vice President; but the foregoing shall not, except in the case of a runoff election, prohibit the name of a candidate for nomination for President, or the name of any other person, from being written on the ballot by the voters for nomination for Vice President, or the name of a candidate for nomination for Vice President, or the name of any other person, from being written on the ballot by the voters for nomination for President. "SEC. 3. For the purposes of this article a political party shall be recognized as such if at any time within four years next preceding a primary election the Secretary of State determines such party has had registered as members thereof more than 5 per centum of the total registered voters in the United States. "SEC. 4. Within fifteen days after such primary election, the chief executive of each State shall make distinct lists of all persons of each political party for whom votes were cast, and the number of votes for each such person, which lists shall be signed, certified, and transmitted under the seal of such State to the seat of the Government of the United States directed to the Secretary of State, who shall forthwith open all certificates and count the votes. The person receiving a majority of the total number of popular votes cast for presidential nominees by the voters of the party of his registered affiliation shall be the official candidate of such party for President throughout the United States, and the person receiving a majority of the total number of popular votes cast for vice presidential nominees by the voters of the party of his registered affiliation shall be the official candidate of such party for Vice President throughout the United States. If no person receives a majority of the total number of popular votes cast for presidential nominees by the voters of a political party, a runoff election to determine the nominee of such political party for President shall be conducted throughout the United States on the twenty-eighth day after the day on which the primary election was held. Such runoff election shall be between the two persons who received the greatest number of popular votes cast for presidential nominees by the voters of such political party in the primary election. If no person receives a majority of the total number of popular votes cast for vice presidential nominees by the voters of a political party, a runoff election to determine the nominee of such political party for Vice President shall be conducted throughout the United States on the twenty-eighth day after the day on which the primary election was held. Such runoff election shall be between the two persons who received the greatest number of popular votes cast for vice presidential nominees by the voters of such political party in the primary election. No person ineligible to vote in the primary election of any political party shall be eligible to vote in a runoff election of such political party. Within fifteen days after a runoff election for the nomination of a political party for President or Vice President, the chief executive of each State shall, in the case of a runoff election for nomination for President, transcribe on an appropriate document the names of the two persons on the party's ballot for nomination for President and the number of votes cast in such State for each, and, in the case of a runoff election for nomination for Vice President, transcribe on an appropriate document the names of the two persons on the party's ballot for nomination for Vice President and the number of votes cast in such State for each, which documents shall be signed, certified, and transmitted under the seal of such State to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the Secretary of State, who shall forthwith open all certificates and count the votes. The person receiving the majority of popular votes for President in a runoff election to elect a nominee for President shall be the official candidate of such political party for President throughout the United States. The person receiving the majority of popular votes for Vice President in a runoff election to elect a nominee for Vice President shall be the official candidate of such political party for Vice President throughout the United States. "SEC. 5. In the event a person shall receive in any such primary election, as the result of write-in votes, a majority of the total number of votes cast by the voters of the party of his registered affiliation for nominees for President and a majority of the total number of votes cast by such voters for nominees for Vice President, such person shall declare which nomination he accepts; and a runoff election shall be conducted for the nomination such person does not accept between the two persons who received the next highest number of votes for such nomination. "In the event a person shall receive in any such primary election, as the result of write-in votes, the highest or second highest number of votes cast by the voters of the party of his registered affiliation for nominees for President (and no person receives a majority) and the highest or second highest number of votes cast by such voters for nominees for Vice President (and no person receives a majority), such person shall declare the office for which he will be a candidate in the runoff election provided for in section 4 of this article and such person may not be a candidate for nomination for the other office. The runoff election for the nomination for such other office shall be between the two persons who received the next highest number of votes for such other office. “In the event a person shall receive in any such primary election, as the result of write-in votes, a majority of the total number of votes cast by the voters of the party of his registered affiliation for nominees for President and the highest or second highest number of votes cast by such voters for nominees for Vice President (and no person receives a majority), or such person receives a majority of the total number of votes cast for nominees for Vice President and the highest or second highest number of votes cast of nominees for President (and no person receives a majority), such person may, in either such case, accept a nomination for the office for which he received a majority of the votes cast, and a runoff election shall be conducted for the other office between the two persons who received the next highest number of votes for such office; or, such person may refuse the nomination for the office for which he received a majority of the votes cast and declare himself a candidate in the runoff election provided for in section 4 of this article for the office for which he received the highest or second highest number of votes. If such person refuses the nomination for an office for which he received a majority of the votes cast, a runoff election shall be conducted for such office between the two persons who received the next highest number of votes for such office. Any runoff election provided for in this section shall be conducted at the same time, and the results thereof certified in the same manner, as provided for runoff elections under section 4 of this article. "If, in any case in which a runoff election would otherwise be held, only one candidate of a party remains for nomination for President or Vice President, as the case may be, such candidate shall be the official candidate of such party for such office and no runoff election shall be conducted for such office. "SEC. 6. In the event of the death or resignation of the official candidate of any political party for President, the person nominated by such political party for Vice President shall be the official candidate of such party for President. In the event of the deaths or resignations of the official candidates of any political party for President and Vice President, or in the event of the death or resignation of the official candidate of any political party for Vice President, a national committee of such party shall designate such candidate or candidates, who shall then be deemed the official candidate or candidates of such party, but in choosing such candidate or candidates the vote shall be taken by States, the delegation from each State having one vote. A quorum for such purposes shall consist of a delegate or delegates from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all States shall be necessary to a choice. |