ught to
be popularly elected in the same manner as Representatives. Acceptance
of this idea was fostered by the mounting accumulation of evidence of
the practical disadvantages and malpractices attendant upon legislative
selection, such as deadlocks within legislatures resulting in vacancies
remaining unfilled for substantial intervals, the influencing of
legislative selection by corrupt political organizations and special
interest groups through purchase of legislative seats, and the neglect
of duties by legislators as a consequence of protracted electoral
contests. Prior to ratification, however, many States had perfected
arrangements calculated to afford the voters more effective control
over the selection of Senators. State laws regulating direct primaries
were amended so as to enable voters participating in primaries to
designate their preference for one of several party candidates for a
senatorial seat: and nominations unofficially effected thereby were
transmitted to the legislature. Although their action rested upon no
stronger foundation than common understanding, the legislatures
generally elected the winning candidate of the majority, and, indeed, in
two States, candidates for legislative seats were required to promise to
support, without regard to party ties, the senatorial candidate polling
the most votes. As a result of such developments, at least 29 States by
1912, one year before ratification, were nominating Senators on a
popular basis; and, as a consequence, the constitutional discretion of
the legislatures had been reduced to little more than that retained by
presidential electors.

Right to Vote for Senators

Very shortly after ratification it was established that if a person
possessed the qualifications requisite for voting for a Senator, his
right to vote for such an officer was not derived merely from the
constitution and laws of the State in which they are chosen but has its
foundation in the Constitution of the United States.[1] Consistently
with this view, federal courts more recently have declared that when
local party authorities, acting pursuant to regulations prescribed by a
party's State executive committee, refused to permit a Negro, on account
of his race, to vote in a primary to select candidates for the office of
United States Senator, they deprived him of a right secured to him by
the Constitution and laws, in violation of this amendment.[2] An
Illinois statute, on the other hand,