CL wrote:
> Jim Breen wrote:
>>Direct election of US senators became nation-wide in 1913 with the
>>17th amendment. Before then it varied, with many states having their
>>legislature selecting the senators. The framers of the Australian
>>constitution considered the (then) US-style indirect election (still
>>used in Germany, etc.) in the 1890s, but went for direct election.
> 
> 1913???  

Yep. That's when the 17th was ratified by enough states.

> Apparently, you've never heard of the State of Louisiana (the
> only US state whose laws are not based on the British legal system --
> and, some would argue, no one else's either) or The Kingfish (Huey
> Long), and neither has the person who wrote the above into Wikipaedia.
> Thanks for the quote, though ...

Read the amendment:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxvii.html

Where does it mention Louisiana is different from the rest?

(Of course, the constitution doesn't stop state politicians from
corrupting the process. But who am I to argue - I'm not a US citizen
and Mike Fester thinks the US system needs no "tweaking" or outside
advice.)

-- 
Jim Breen        http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/
Clayton School of Information Technology,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学