The seventeenth amendment to the US Constitution gave the people of the United States the right and ability to elect US Senators in the states in which each individual voter lived. Prior to this, US Senators in Congress were selected by the state legislators from their home states. The amendment also allowed the governor in a state that has a vacancy in the Senate to make a temporary appointment to the vacant office, until a special election with voting by the people of that state can be set up.
This amendment was proposed by Congress in 1912 and was ratified by the requisite ¾ of US states in April of 1913. The senators who were already in Congress when this amendment became part of the Constitution were not affected by it until the ends of their terms in office when they would be up for re-election again. The amendment was tested with two special elections in Georgia and Maryland, and then in earnest in the 1914 Congressional elections. Its implementation was completed in March of 1919, when the senators who were elected in the November 1918 election took office.
What Does it Say?
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
What Does it Mean?
This amendment changed the way that US Senators are elected, and also changed the way vacancies in the Senate would be filled. The original part of the Constitution required senators to be selected by state legislatures, and for those same state legislatures to fill any vacancies in the Senate.
Prior to the adoption of this amendment, the state legislatures across the country were considered to be pretty corrupt. They had a bad reputation among the people. By allowing the people to elect their US Senators, the state legislatures had less power, and their reputations improved, at least somewhat, in the immediate aftermath of the adoption of this amendment. This amendment also forced state legislatures to focus on local issues, rather than national ones, in the elections of representatives to the state legislatures.
The amendment gave the “one man, one vote” principle espoused in the Constitution more power and merit, as well. By adopting it, Congress was truly putting its money where its mouth was.
After the adoption of this amendment, the newly popularly elected Senate confirmed both Republican and Democrat Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court, in turn, began to apply the Bill of Rights to the states, something that had not been done before. Where state law could previously harm individual state citizens or allow the wealthy to have undue political influence, the seventeenth amendment helped reduce these things, to the benefit of everyone.
