General Election: United States Senators

The United States Constitution provides for two members of the United States Senate from each state. Originally the Constitution provided that each state's legislature choose its two Senators. The Seventeenth Amendment changed that by requiring popular election of Senators. The last election of a Senator by Vermont's General Assembly took place on October 19, 1910 (Carroll S. Page) and the first by the people took place on November 3, 1914 (William P. Dillingham).

U.S. Senators are elected in even numbered-years to serve a term of six years, which term begins in the succeeding odd-numbered year. Vermont Senators are identified as being either Class 1 or Class 3. The Class designation derives from Article 1, Section 3 of the United States Constitution. This section provided for the original Senate to be divided into three equal (or nearly equal) classes, the purpose of which was to stagger the members' terms so that one third of the Senators would subsequently be chosen every two years. Vermont, when it was admitted to the Union in 1791, had its two Senators placed in Classes 1 and 3.