MADISONCENTER FOR AMERICAN LEADERSHIP
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The Constitution,
connected.

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The constitutional text

Article I · Section 2

Select any highlighted phrase to understand what it means.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

[Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.]* The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Source: National Constitution Center edition. Original wording is preserved; commentary explains historical and superseded provisions.

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You don’t have to understand everything at once. One connection is a good beginning.

LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER

Article I, Section 2, Clause 1 — elector qualifications

Who may vote for representatives?

Current text
and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

What it means

This clause connects qualifications for House voters to those for the larger chamber of each state legislature. “Electors” here means voters, not the presidential electors described in Article II.

Historical setting

The founding states had differing voting rules, often involving sex, property, taxation, and other exclusions. Federalist 52 described the state-based rule as avoiding both a single contested national formula and ordinary congressional manipulation of the electorate.

What it does

The original cross-reference must now be read with later voting amendments and other constitutional protections. States cannot use their role to impose qualifications forbidden by the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-Fourth, or Twenty-Sixth Amendments.

Debate & interpretation

The provision illustrates that population, citizenship, and voting eligibility are separate categories. It also raises a continuing design question: how much variation in election qualifications is compatible with equal participation in a national legislature?

A common misreading

This sentence neither enfranchised every resident nor permanently constitutionalized the states’ 1787 exclusions.

Think it through

Why might tying federal and state voting qualifications together prevent one kind of manipulation while permitting another?

Follow the connection

Sources & further reading

Original Madison Center commentary. Explanations distinguish the text, historical context, and interpretive disagreements.

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