United States Constitution – Article I sec 4
Section 4
(Clause 1)
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
The state legislatures determine the details of holding an election, but Congress can overrule them – except for where to select a Senator. I assume that the last little detail was due to the state legislature selecting the Senators, which would make this an oversight in the 17th amendment, which changes the selection of Senators to a direct popular vote.
(Clause 2)
The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.
I find this to be one of the more curious clauses.
Congress must meet at least once every year, starting on the first Monday in December. What makes this so curious is that section 2 of the 20th amendment changes the starting date. This clause states that Congress can change the date through legislation, which means that an amendment was not needed to make the change. Granted, the 20th amendment is about presidential term limits and the succession, but they did throw in a change to the starting date for a Session of Congress. Furthermore, they kept the “unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day” wording. This tells me that the people who wrote the 20th amendment understood that this part of the amendment could have been done in statute. Curious.
ZeraLand, USA 