23rd Amendment of the United States of Elisia

The Twenty-Third Amendment (Amendment XXIII) to the United States Constitution was adopted on XX X, 19XX to revise Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1, and also Article X, Section X, Clause X, to establish the authority of the federal government to regulate all elections, both local and federal, within the union. This amendment is notable for being the only one in US history to have been ratified without the consent of Congress, through the establishment of constitutional conventions, permitted within the Constitution as a way to revise it.

Text

The first paragraph of Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; however, Congress shall have the power to make or alter such regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.

Congress shall have the power to establish uniform standards for federal elections, including but not limited to voter registration procedures, early voting periods, mail-in voting processes, and the security and integrity of voting systems.

States shall retain the authority to administer federal elections within their borders, subject to compliance with federal standards established with the authority of the Constitution.

Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Background

The amendment was conceived after what is now known as the Whiteout Day. Whiteout Day occurred in November of 19XX, which was an election year for the presidency. Months prior to the election, the northern states conspired to confuse voters of color so that they were unable to vote, and any voter who did show up, was permitted, but their vote selection would be whited out and replaced with candidate [NAME HERE], who was one of the most popular northern candidates at the time. In some cases, the name would even be whited out and replaced with a known dead name, to convince federal authorities to arrest and charge him with ballot stuffing.

When the election concluded, their candidate ended up being the winner, the first northern presidency since the Civil War. The win itself was not unusual, and raised no red flags, however, historians do note it as the most verifiable election in US history, because almost every single voter was real, and legitimate, with only a small proportion being dead or illegal. Talks of the amendment ended up occurring after the subsequent election of the House of Representatives which was the most controversial election because in response to the north's candidate winning, the south conspired together to only permit southern candidates to join the house, and background checks were required to verify such information. As a result of those actions, and anti-northern sentiment produced by the south in the north in a campaign against them, the House of Representatives ended up being majority southerners, as did the Senate. This was the most politically tense federal government to exist since the Civil War.

The northern delegates ended up attempting to compromise with the southern delegates, knowing that any sort of federal proposal to try to stop this from occurring again not only negatively affected them, but also because it negatively affected the south. The South declined on multiple occasions, which further increased the tension. With the south being as weak as it was, and the north hating the southern president, the federal government for the first time in history, was useless. President [NAME HERE] refused to compromise with the South on anything, any matter, even matters as simple as the budget, which caused a year-long government shutdown until government employees across the nation threatened to riot if their wages weren't paid soon.

Even before the budgetary crisis was resolved in 19XX, there were talks along state and ideological lines by ordinary people of state action. Attorneys, farmers, people from all walks of life had meetings with one another and spread word about wanting change and how to do it. Months after the crisis was resolved, suddenly in New Syracuse, a constitutional convention was announced by Governor [NAME HERE] due to a petition, which nobody had heard about until the convention was established, attained the required amount of signatures in just two weeks. Following NS: Athens, Demos and Delphia all announced constitutional conventions of the same topic. By the end of the next month, all nine states had active constitutional conventions.