New States
When a new state is admitted to the Union, its two senators have terms that correspond to those of two different classes, among the three classes defined below. Which two classes is determined by a scheme that keeps the three classes as close to the same size as possible; one that avoids the largest class differing by more than one senator from the smallest class.
This means at least one of any new state's first pair of senators has a term of less than six years, and one term is either two or four years shorter than the other.
When the last state was admitted, Hawaii in 1959, candidates for the Senate ran either for "seat A" or "seat B." The new Senators, in a process managed by the Secretary of the Senate, drew lots to determine which of the two would join the Class 1 (whose term would end in five-and-a-half years), and which would join Class 3 (whose term would end in three-and-a-half years).
Should a 51st state be admitted, it would receive senators in Classes 1 and 2, at which point all three Classes would have 34 senators.
Read more about this topic: Classes Of United States Senators
Famous quotes containing the word states:
“It is impossible for a stranger traveling through the United States to tell from the appearance of the people or the country whether he is in Toledo, Ohio, or Portland, Oregon. Ninety million Americans cut their hair in the same way, eat each morning exactly the same breakfast, tie up the small girls’ curls with precisely the same kind of ribbon fashioned into bows exactly alike; and in every way all try to look and act as much like all the others as they can.”
—Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe (1865–1922)
“The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)