Also, are different elections held on different years for each of the two senators from each state? How are the senators decided? Does the state legislature pick out the senators to hold office? How do you run for being a senator, anyway? I think that the senators are appointed. Senators are probably appointed by the President. Who really picks the senators? And how are two, (emphasis on two) two, senators chosen for the United States Senate? Are they elected at the same time?
2006-11-07 18:52:10 · 5 answers · asked by fieldscharlie 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Elections
I'm sorry. I actually meant United States senators instead of "United Senators" in "How are United Senators elected?".
2006-11-07 19:58:34 · update #1
Senators are elected by popular vote by the people of the state they represent. Each Senator holds office for a six-year term. Except in rare cases where a Senate seat has become vacant mid-term (because of a death or resignation), a state does not have elections for both seats in the same year.
2006-11-07 18:58:49 · answer #1 · answered by JerH1 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To add to what Jeremy said:
One third of the senate is elected every two years and senators serve for 6 years.
When the constitution was first written the method electing senators was left up to the states. It is possible that the governors of some states appointed their senators but in most cases they were elected by the state legislatures. After a while some states switched to direct election by the people and finally a national constitutional amendment was passed that required that all states choose senators by a vote of the people.
The reason that each state has two senators is that when the constitution was being written the big states wanted a congress where the membership was proportional to population and the small states wanted equal representation. To break the impasse a compromise was worked out where one house of congress would be proportional (The House of Representatives) and the other would be equal (The Senate).
In some cases if a senator leaves office early the governor can appoint a replacement to serve until an election can be held.
2006-11-07 20:06:25 · answer #2 · answered by rethinker 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everything jeremy said, and in addition: You must be at least 30 years old, a native or naturalized citizen, you must win the nomination of your party before you can be on the ballot, each state---whether it has a population of 500,000 people or 50 million people, only gets to have 2 senators. There are 100 senators for the 50 states, they serve 6 year terms, and every 2 years 1/3 of them are up for re-election, thus every 4 or 2 years a state has a senator up for re-election. A senator can have as many consecutive terms as he/she can be elected, currently Byrd (D) from West Virginia has been in the Senate for about 50 years, just won reelection and has been there the longest out of them all. (And what an awesome speaker, I watched him on C-Span once and was riveted!)
2006-11-07 19:54:50 · answer #3 · answered by LogicalReason 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sure. you should be a US citizen to be a US Senator yet you do no longer must be interior sight born. the sole federal positions for which you should be interior sight born is President and vice chairman (regardless of the shown fact that it is not definitively reported interior the form on the subject of vice chairman)
2016-12-28 15:46:50 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are obviously not yet qualified to vote.
2006-11-07 18:56:06 · answer #5 · answered by Norman 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋