Question - was the 17th Amendment ever actually, legally, and truthfully ratified? Evidence seems to point to “no” - between the states that took on themselves a rewording of it, states that never even voted on it, and where there is doubt that a vote was ever taken (when results were assumed before a vote was ever taken in some cases)...
On May 12, 1912, the Seventeenth Amendment, providing for direct popular election of the Senate, was approved by the Congress; the requisite three-fourths of the state legislatures ratified it in less than eleven months. Not only was it ratified quickly, but it was also ratified by overwhelming numbers. In fifty-two of the seventy-two state legislative chambers that voted to ratify the Seventeenth Amendment, the vote was unanimous, and in all thirty-six of the ratifying states the total number of votes cast in opposition to ratification was only 191, with 152 of these votes coming from the lower chambers of Vermont and Connecticut.
- From Heritage.org
http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/amendments/17/essays/178/popular-election-of-senators