I've been thinking about ways that we could realistically restore some of the balance lost the federal government and states with the passage of the 17 Amendment (direct election of senators). A direct repeal would be highly unlikely to pass under even very bad circumstances. I've been trying to think of types of amendments that might fit better and stood a chance of going through. This is what I've come up with. It's still a long shot, but I think it might stand some semblance of a chance.

1. Every state will get 6 senators. Three are directly elected by the state citizens the other 3 are appointed by the state legislature.

2. The electoral college is ended and replaced by a national popular vote.

I don't like the size the senate would become or like the end of the electoral college, but I think as a package this might do better than any other proposal like it. It could be argued that the states need more of a say on what's mandated on them, but that this balances out that loss of direct power by ending the electoral college and maintaining half the senators through election (with one in every state elected every 2 years). I think the argument here would be a lot easier to win in public than any kind of repeal.

The other big feature is the addition of so many more Senate seats (including elected ones) which would probably help with votes in the House (members wanting to move up), with some borderline senators (afraid they'll lose their spot in an election), and with most of the state legislatures (who will see more chances to enter Congress).

Disagree with both: Two Senators under the control of the State legislatures were fine and still work.

Second, the EC is the final check and balance against something totally stupid happening. It works. The Executive, properly executed, is a relatively weak position.

Fix the real problem - we should not have an imperial Executive and any move to ratify that is one toward tyranny.

I agree that two senators under the control of the state legislatures is best. Under the 17th Amendment though we can't get that and I don't think you'll ever get anything through Congress that ends direct elections. My proposal's objective is to at least partially restore that balance (1/2 of the senators appointed instead of none) and is done in a way I'd hope would get a few over anxious politicians onboard instead of opposing it.

I agree the electoral college is better left alone too and maybe I should have left that out of this. I threw it in to nullify some of the complaints from those who would be argue this was taking power away from the people though. While ideologically I love the electoral college, practically it rarely goes with to someone who doesn't win the popular vote anyway.

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2. The electoral college is ended and replaced by a national popular vote.

If so, then in a really close election, every vote in every precinct in the country would have to be recounted.

We had lawsuits that went to the Supreme Court in the Bush/Gore race.

Can you imagine all the lawsuits if every vote in the country had to be recounted?

I'm working on an annotated bibliography about the 17th. One reason it was changed was because the state legislatures often couldn't or wouldn't fill the positions. Some states went unrepresented in the senate for long periods. Given the partisan nature of politics today, is it likely the states will be any better at filling the positions today?

I don't have a position on the issue. I find it very interesting historically.

If a state can't get its act together to agree on a Senator, or elect a reasonable state legislature, then they are properly deprived of some representation.

If they really don't want a Senator, they don't need one.

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I don't have a position on the issue. I find it very interesting historically.

Another historical reason theoretically in favor of direct election is corruption: state political machines would send their proxies/lackeys to Washington to bring home the bacon, which they would then parcel out to themselves and their clients. Harry Truman was tarred with this early on, and worked hard to get out from under the 'Senator from Pendergast' cloud.

But then, the question is, has corruption (measured by porkbarrel projects, subsidies, etc) decreased with the 17th amendment?

IMO the best check-balance on the federal government died the day the 17th amendment was ratified :(

However I disagree with both ideas presented by this thread's Original Poster.

1. Two per state legislature is sufficient.
2. Having a National Popular Vote being the decider on Presidential elections would mean that effectively the role played by state governments on elections would be superceded by some new federal bureaucracy. Its better IMO if we leave that layer of bureaucracy at the State level.

It seems to me that the two separate houses need to be separate for a reason.

If you elect the senators by popular vote, all you really have is 6 year term representatives.

The house represents the people.

The senate represents the republic.

The republic has lost its entityship because no one represents it.

The people, when left to their own devices, always elect the worst, the people who will get them killed. That's why the founders had to avoid a straight democracy.

Just wanted to suggest another possible tweak or two.

1) Two senators per state elected by the legislature of the state from among their own number.

A senator will also be a state representative and will have some interest in preserving the power of the states.

2) Senators may be recalled and replaced by the state legislature at will.

Travel and communications are no longer the issue they were when the constitution was first written. If they are not doing the will of the state legislature then the legislature should be free to recall them.

My two cents:
Let the states decide how they want to appoint their senators.

Let the states' people decide how they want to elect their representatives (either through districts drawn by the individual states legislature, or through british parliament type system).