Primary-election ballot fraud violates federally secured voting rights.

Evidence

The defendants were commissioners of elections in Louisiana, and the specific charge was that, while conducting a primary election under Louisiana law to naminate a candidate of the Democratic Party for representative in Congress, they had willfully altered and falsely counted and certified the ballots of voters cast in the primary election. … The position that this conduct constituted an injury to, and a deprivation of, a right secured to citizens and inhabitants by the Constitution of the United States rested on the highly general language of Section 2 and Section 4 of Article I of the Constitution. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 3131

Categorization

• XREF: Supplies the factual backdrop of United States v. Classic for the legal-institutions course — a canonical example of implied constitutional rights from general language. — connects to: A formally valid election is unconstitutional if any influence deters voters’ free will — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 3508

Broader Connections

• A formally valid election is unconstitutional if any influence deters voters’ free will #expands (0.75) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 3508