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Question 34 of 128 · American Government · System of Government

Who elects members of the House of Representatives?

Accepted answer

  • Citizens from their (congressional) district

Why this is the answer

Members of the House are elected by the citizens of their own congressional district. The voters who live inside the district's lines choose one person to represent them, and two years later they choose again. The official answer is citizens from their congressional district, with "congressional" optional. From the beginning, the House was the one part of the federal government chosen directly by the people. Article I, Section 2 says representatives are chosen every second year by the people of the states. The other elected offices were filled more indirectly in the original plan: senators were chosen by state legislatures, and the President by electors that each state appointed. Federalist No. 52 explained the thinking. The House, it said, ought to be dependent on the people alone, and the right to vote was too important to leave to Congress or to the state governments. The Constitution does not write a separate list of who may vote for the House. Instead, anyone qualified to vote for the larger chamber of their own state legislature can vote for representative. Federalist No. 52 defended this as the best option available, since a single national rule would have upset some states. There are no appointments to the House. When a seat becomes vacant, the Constitution directs the state's governor to call an election to fill it. That differs from the Senate, where the 17th Amendment lets a state legislature allow the governor to make a temporary appointment. A House seat is always filled by election, which makes the House the one place where every member owes the seat directly to the voters of a single district. The usual wrong answers name some other body: the state governor, the Senate, or the Electoral College. None of them chooses representatives. Others say "the people of the state," which misses the point, since only the voters of that district take part.

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