All the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be up for election in 2010.
This 2009 e-mail exhortation urges Americans to consider the suggestion that they vote all incumbents out of the House of Representatives during the upcoming elections in November 2010, as well as voting all incumbents out of the Senate over the next three elections (i.e., 2010, 2012, 2014). Whether voters should take up such a suggestion is a matter of opinion that has no 'true' or 'false' value to it, so the aspect we'll address here is one which a number of our readers have questioned, namely the basic premise that all the seats in the House will be up for grabs in 2010:Are all 435 members of the House of Representatives up for re-election in 2010? I received a message about the entire House of Representatives being up for election in 2010. My memory may be faulty but I don't remember that ever happening. I mean, if this were so, wouldn't it be in the news? I received an email this morning with what I believe to be an untrue statement - 'In November of 2010 the entire House of Representatives will stand for re-election; all 435 of them.' Is this true? I don't recall a time where the entire House of Representatives has been up for re-election. Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution establishes the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government, a bicameral legislature known as Congress, as described in Section 1 of that Article:All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.Section 2 specifies the term of office for members of the House of Representatives:The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states.Section 3 (since modified by the 17th amendment) specifies the term of office for members of the Senate:The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year.In other words, members of the House of Representatives (currently 435 in number) serve two-year terms and come up for election every even-numbered year.Members of the Senate (currently 100 in number) serve six-year terms which are staggered so that one-third come up for election every two years. So yes, all the seats in the House of Representatives will be up for grabs in 2010 - just as they have been every two years since the first Congressional elections in 1788.
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