Voting Under Federal Election Laws

Abstract

Although states and local governments administer elections in the United States, the federal government has also occasionally enacted laws that regulate election administration. Most prominent among these laws are the National Voter Registration Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and the Help America Vote Act. With its recent attempt to enact the For the People Act, Congress has demonstrated an interest in more aggressively regulating election administration. This chapter discusses both the promise and the challenges of federal election laws, with an emphasis on federal election administration laws (and excluding the Voting Rights Act). It discusses the good that these laws can accomplish, but also the difficulties enforcing them. It explains how federal election administration laws fit into voting rights scholarship, and suggests avenues for future research. Building on these insights, it concludes by suggesting novel ways that the federal government could effectively administer elections while retaining the benefits of local election administration.

Keywords: election administration, election law, local government, voting rights, federal law, federalism