Legal Definitions - Seventeenth Amendment

The Seventeenth Amendment is a change made to the United States Constitution in 1913. It gave the power to elect U.S. senators to the people of each state, instead of the state legislatures.

Before the Seventeenth Amendment, state legislatures chose their state's senators. This meant that the people of the state did not have a direct say in who represented them in the U.S. Senate. The Seventeenth Amendment changed this by allowing the people to vote for their senators in the same way they vote for their representatives in the House of Representatives.

For example, if you live in California, you can vote for your two senators in the federal government. Before the Seventeenth Amendment, the California state legislature would have chosen the senators instead of the people.

The Seventeenth Amendment was an important change to the U.S. Constitution because it gave more power to the people. It allowed them to have a direct say in who represents them in the U.S. Senate.