Why It Matters
Congress retains broad authority over the times, places, and manner of congressional elections, but that power has limits, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report published July 7. The Supreme Court has substantially narrowed federal enforcement mechanisms in recent years, while simultaneously expanding campaign finance freedoms. These developments create a gap between what the Trump administration and Congress may want to accomplish on elections policy and what the Constitution and courts now permit.
For presidential elections, Congress can only determine when electors are chosen and when they cast votes. Over state and local elections, Congress has no general regulatory authority at all, though it can use federal funding as leverage. Understanding these boundaries is essential as the Trump administration and Congress consider election-related legislation.
The Big Picture
The report maps the constitutional architecture underlying federal election law. The Elections Clause grants states initial authority to administer congressional elections, with Congress holding override power to alter those rules. The Supreme Court has described this as comprehensive authority, encompassing the entire regulatory code for House and Senate elections, including voter registration procedures established in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
But recent Supreme Court decisions have reshaped what Congress can enforce. In 2026, the Court ruled in Watson v. Republican National Committee that federal Election Day statutes do not require ballots to be received by Election Day, narrowing one enforcement mechanism. The same year, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC struck down campaign finance limits on coordinated spending by political parties with candidates. Most significantly, in Louisiana v. Callais, the Court substantially rewrote Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, raising the evidentiary bar for racial vote dilution challenges and requiring evidence of intentional discrimination by a state to establish a violation.
Congress enacted the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which establishes requirements for state administration of federal elections including relating to the removal of registrants from federal election voter rolls, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which prohibits states and localities from applying discriminatory procedures in voting based on race, color, or membership in certain language minority groups and requires bilingual election materials in certain jurisdictions. The Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act of 2023 amended the Help America Vote Act to require states to permit congressional election observers to monitor federal elections. The Spending Clause also allows Congress to condition federal funds on election compliance, giving it indirect leverage over state practices.
Yet these tools operate within narrower boundaries than before. The report highlights that Congress cannot regulate purely state and local elections through direct mandate, and voter protection provisions face judicial skepticism. The Attorney General retains enforcement authority under multiple statutes, but recent court rulings have constrained the underlying rights being enforced.
The Bottom Line
Congress's election authority is real but compartmentalized. Congress can make or alter state election rules for congressional elections and can use the Spending Clause to condition federal funds on compliance with federal requirements, but Congress has no general regulatory authority over purely state and local elections. The Trump administration and Congress face a narrowed landscape for federal election enforcement. The Louisiana v. Callais decision in particular has substantially constrained the Department of Justice's enforcement toolkit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a mechanism the agency has relied on for decades to challenge discriminatory voting practices. As the Trump administration weighs new election legislation or enforcement priorities, it must account for these narrowed boundaries and consider whether alternative mechanisms or constitutional amendments might be necessary to achieve broader voting rights protections.
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