HA-01 | Direct Election and Federal Election Standards

Section 1. Direct Election of Federal Officers

The President and Vice President, Senators, and voting Representatives shall be chosen by the qualified voters entitled to vote for those offices.

No electoral body, chamber of Congress, officer, or other institution shall possess authority to substitute its political judgment for the lawful votes of the People in determining the election of a federal officer.

A nonvoting Regional Congressional Delegate established under another Article shall not be a voting Representative for purposes of this Section.

Section 2. One National Presidential Electorate

The President and Vice President shall stand for election jointly as a single ticket and shall be elected from one national electorate by a result determined from all lawful votes cast for that office throughout the several States and the District constituting the seat of Government.

No presidential vote shall be weighted, diminished, or assigned a different legal value because of the State or District in which it is cast.

Presidential electors shall not be appointed, and the offices, functions, certificates, transmissions, counting procedures, and contingent-selection machinery dependent upon presidential electors are abolished.

Section 3. Reciprocal Presidential and Vice-Presidential Eligibility

A person must satisfy every constitutional qualification and eligibility requirement applicable to both the Presidency and the Vice Presidency in order to serve in either office.

No person constitutionally ineligible to serve as President shall be eligible to serve as Vice President, and no person constitutionally ineligible to serve as Vice President shall be eligible to serve as President.

Nothing in this Section prevents immediate assumption of the Presidency when succession is affirmatively required by this Constitution; succession shall not create eligibility for a later voluntary candidacy that this Constitution otherwise prohibits.

Section 4. Vice-Presidential Consecutive Service and White House Separation

No person shall serve more than two consecutive elected terms as Vice President.

After completing two consecutive elected terms as Vice President, a person shall complete four full consecutive calendar years outside both the office of President and the office of Vice President before again becoming eligible for voluntary election, appointment, or selection to either office.

Completion of that four-year White House separation restores eligibility otherwise permitted by this Constitution and does not create a lifetime bar. Service in another office during the White House separation remains governed by the separate constitutional rules applicable to that office.

Constitutional succession during a Vice-Presidential term remains governed by this Constitution and is not defeated by a prospective voluntary-candidacy restriction.

Section 5. Electoral Methods and Definite Results

Congress may by law establish different electoral methods for the Presidential ticket, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, provided that each method is enacted before the affected election and complies with this Constitution.

Each method shall produce a definite lawful result and shall provide neutral procedures for ties, recounts, runoffs, extraordinary circumstances, and other contingencies.

A tie or failure to satisfy a lawful threshold shall be resolved through a voter-based runoff or another neutral rule established before the election. It shall not be resolved through an ordinary political vote of either House of Congress.

Section 6. Federal Election Standards

Congress shall establish uniform national protections and minimum standards for federal elections, including standards concerning equal treatment of lawful votes; meaningful and accessible participation; registration, ballot access, and candidate qualification; ballot design, voting systems, counting, canvassing, audits, recounts, and correction of material errors; security, continuity, and preservation of election records; transparent and impartial certification; timely judicial review; and protection against discrimination, intimidation, coercion, deliberate false official voting instructions, arbitrary administration, and unlawful interference.

Such laws shall preserve freedom of speech, press, protest, advocacy, satire, journalism, and good-faith criticism, and shall not be construed or applied to abridge, diminish, or circumvent any other right, protection, or limitation established by this Constitution.

Section 7. Administration and Certification

Federal elections may be administered by the States and their political subdivisions under standards consistent with this Article.

Congress shall provide an impartial national process for aggregating and certifying the results of federal elections that require a national result.

No candidate, campaign, party officer, or person acting under their direction may exercise unilateral authority over final certification.

Section 8. Voter Qualifications and Existing Rights

The qualifications of voters shall remain subject to this Constitution.

Congress may establish uniform national protections and minimum standards, but no law enacted under this Article may abridge a right to vote protected elsewhere in this Constitution.

Existing constitutional provisions concerning voting rights and qualifications remain in force except to the extent they are inconsistent with this Article.

Section 9. Stability Before an Election

No material change to the electoral method, ballot rules, candidate-qualification rules, counting rules, or certification standards governing a federal election shall take effect after candidate qualification or voting has begun, except as narrowly necessary to remedy an unconstitutional condition or an emergency that makes lawful administration otherwise impossible.

Section 10. Supersession of Presidential-Elector Provisions

Upon this Article becoming operative, the Twelfth Amendment is superseded in full and shall have no further effect.

The provisions of Article II, the Twenty-Third Amendment, and every other constitutional provision concerning the appointment, voting, transmission, or counting of presidential electors shall have no further effect to the extent they depend upon or preserve presidential electors, an Electoral College, or contingent congressional selection of the President or Vice President.

Nothing in this Section repeals a constitutional qualification, term limitation, succession rule, or other provision that can operate independently of presidential electors, except to the extent expressly modified by this Article.

Section 11. Enforcement and Effective Date

Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this Article by appropriate legislation.

This Article shall become operative following the first regularly scheduled Presidential election occurring not less than two years after ratification.