>Article IV, Section 4: >The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government ... >"By the constitution, a republican form of government is guarant[eed] to every state in the Union, and the distinguishing feature of that form is the right of the people to choose their own officers for governmental administration, and pass their own laws in virtue of the legislative power reposed in representative bodies, whose legitimate acts may be said to be those of the people themselves . . . ." *In re Duncan*, 139 U.S. 449 (1891). https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artIV-S4-3/ALDE_00013637/ >" ... the right of suffrage must be protected and its exercise prescribed by previous law and the results ascertained by some certain rule ... and to certain forms of the conduct of elections; that our liberty is the liberty secured by the regular action of popular power, taking place and ascertained in accordance with legal and authentic modes ..." *Luther v. Borden*, 48 U.S. 1 (1849).