Just like many other countries, the United States of America which is one of the world’s most powerful nations has its own bicameral legislature or Congress composed of the senate and the US House of Representatives.
Both of the two houses are charged with certain powers that are to be performed in accordance with the existing laws. The US House of Representatives, led by its speaker is charged with the responsibility to pass federal legislations subject to the concurrence with the senate and further agreement by the president. The representatives also have the power to impeach officials and to elect the president in case of a deadlock on the Electoral College.
Each of the states of US is entitled to have a number of representatives depending on its populace over the aggregate 50-state population. Overall, the US law has fixed the number of voting representatives to 435. Thus, not all states have equal number of representatives. On the minimum, each state is to have one representative.
As these members of the house would be the ones who will represent their respective states in the presidential election, they are carefully chosen and are subjected to certain qualifications. Before an individual is elected to occupy a seat in the US House of Representatives, the person must be at least twenty-five (25) years old, must have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years, and must be an inhabitant of the state being represented at the time of the election.
The elections for the members of the US House of Representatives are held in every even-numbered year and the winner is determined via plurality vote on a single-member districts system. There are states where the Democratic as well as the Republican parties use a political convention in determining the candidates for every district. Such convention uses unanimous voice voting that mirrors the confidence upon the incumbent or upon the outcome of a prior private discussion. Through this convention, a lost candidate can have an appeal to have a primary election provided the conditions are met.
In general, the rule on ballot access is not considered by the courts as additional requirements or qualifications for third party or independent candidates before having an office on the House of Representatives. The said rule on ballot access is restricted for the reason that when the limits imposed upon it is too low, it amounts to too many candidates that only results to further allocation of votes to two or three candidates that the public find appealing. As a consequence, the candidate which in fact is not so appealing to the voting populace is the one who wins.
The tenure of an elected representative is set to two years except for the resident commissioner who serves for four years. Seat vacancies are filled via special election except when the vacancy happens closer to the subsequent date of general elections than the established deadline. The person elected through special election shall assume office the next day or on the date the results are certified.
Under the Fourteenth Amendment, if for certain reasons an individual who has previously taken an oath to support the US Constitution subsequently becomes involved in rebellion or helps the US enemy, the said person shall no longer be qualified to be a representative unless he/she gets the consent of two-thirds of the two houses of US Congress.