Arguments In Favour Of The 17th Amendment

On September 28, 1789, Congress proposed the 17th amendment that was revised to the states and was later ratified by three-quarter of the states on December 15, 1791. This amendment allowed for the people to vote for senators in which people had not voted for said positions in over 125 years before the amendment was ratified. This amendment was created to modify Article I section 3 of the Constitution to allow the people to cast direct votes for their U.S. senators, in which prior the state legislature had the ability to choose their senators. It also was created to fill in vacant spots in the Senate when either a senator resigned to his or her position, was expelled from said position, or died during their term. This amendment empowered the state governor through the legislatures to replace the previous senator. It gave them the ability to finish the rest of the term that the previous senator never completed or until the special election could take place. There were few rules that had exceptions. Few states did require to have a special election to fill in the vacancy and appoint their governor, making sure the elect was for the same political party as the previous senator running. The U.S. Senate is composed of two senators for each state. Each senator can run for as many terms as …show more content…
In my opinion, I think it should have stayed the same before the amendment was created because I believe that the state legislature lacks the power to express themselves freely through their actions. The state politicians should have a say as to who should be a senator, not the people, in all honesty, the state should have more control than the people. I also believe we should go off of the Constitution rather than completely changing or revising

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