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See Wikisource for the text of the Amendment.
Article II provided an indirect method of election for the President; the states would choose, in such a manner as the legislature directed, a number of electors, who would in turn elect the President. The number of electors assigned to each state is equal to the number of Senators (always two) and Representatives (a minimum of one, proportional to population) representing the state in Congress. State legislatures were free to choose electors in any manner they wished, but no Senator or Representative could be an elector.
Each elector could cast two votes; at least one of those votes had to be for an individual not inhabiting the same state as the electors themselves (this provision was designed to keep electors from voting for the "favorite sons" of their respective states). The two Houses of Congress met jointly to count the electoral votes certified by the states, with the President of the Senate presiding. A majority of electoral votes was required to win. If more than one individual was voted for by a majority of electors (which was possible, since each elector cast two votes), the individual with the greater number of votes won. If there was a tie, the House of Representatives would choose from amongst the two candidates. If no individual had a majority, then the House of Representatives would choose from the five individuals with the greatest number of electoral votes. Voting in the House in such cases was by states, with all Representatives from a particular state casting one collective vote. Representatives from two-thirds of the states constituted a quorum, and the votes of a majority of states was necessary to choose a President.
The choosing of the Vice President was a simpler process. Whichever candidate received the greatest number of votes, except for the one elected President, became Vice President. The Vice President, unlike the President, did not require the votes of a majority of electors. In the event of a tie for second place between multiple candidates, the Senate chose one of them to be Vice President. Each Senator cast one vote; Article IArticle One of the United States Constitution establishes the legislative branch of government, Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Article establishes the manner of election and qualifications of members of each Hous granted the sitting Vice President a casting (or tie-breaking) vote.
The system of elections provided for by Article II did not foresee the rise of political partiesA political party is a political organization subscribing to a certain ideology or formed around very special issues. In party-list proportional representation, parties (and sometimes multi-party cartels) can play a functional role in the voting system.. In 1789Summary The election of 1789 was the first presidential election in the United States. New York failed to appoint its allotment of eight electors, and subsequently cast no electoral votes. North Carolina and Rhode Island also did not cast votes, as they h and in 1792Summary The election of 1792 was the second presidential election in the United States, and the first in which each of the original 13 states appointed electors. Washington re-elected President As in 1789, President George Washington ran unopposed for a s, the electors unanimously voted for George WashingtonGeorge Washington ( February 22, 1732— December 14, 1799), also called Father of his Country 1 was an American general and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War ( 1775 1783) and later the first President of the Unite. The makeup of Washington's CabinetAlternate meanings in cabinet (disambiguation A Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers . In some countries, particularly those was a factor contributing to the creation of political parties. Washington's Secretary of the TreasuryThe United States Secretary of the Treasury is the finance minister of the Federal Government of the United States. He or she is head of the United States Department of the Treasury, concerned with finance and monetary matters and, until 2003, some issues, Alexander HamiltonAlexander Hamilton ( January 11, 1755 or 1757 1 July 12, 1804) was an American statesman, journalist, and lawyer. He is credited as being America's greatest constitutional lawyer. As the principal author of the Federalist Papers, he successfully defended, often clashed with the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton favored a powerful national government, while Jefferson favored keeping most of the authority in the hands of the states. Supporters of Hamilton's philosophy came to form the Federalist Party, while those favoring Jefferson's ideas became the Democratic-Republican Party (the predecessor of the modern Democratic Party).
Thomas Jefferson contested the election of 1796 with John Adams, George Washington's Vice President. The Democratic-Republicans nominated Aaron Burr as Jefferson's running mate, or Vice Presidential candidate, while Thomas Pinckney fulfilled a like role in relation to the Federalist John Adams. At the time, however, regions sometimes defined politicians more than political parties. Thus, while John Adams received 71 votes and became President, his running mate failed to be elected. Instead, Jefferson, Adams' political opponent, became Vice President with 68 votes.
In 1800, Jefferson again ran for the Presidency, with Burr as his running mate. Adams, in his re-election bid, ran alongside Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (the brother of the aforementioned Thomas Pinckney). Jefferson and Burr each received 73 votes, Adams 65 votes, Pinckney 64 and John Jay one. It was clearly the intention of the Democratic-Republican Party to nominate Jefferson to the Presidency and Burr to the Vice Presidency. Nevertheless, when voting, the Electors had no way to distinguish between the two positions.
The election was then sent to the House of Representatives, which was dominated by Federalists with no desire to conform to the original plan of the Democratic-Republicans. There were sixteen states in the Union at the time, meaning that a candidate needed the votes of nine state delegations to win in the House of Representatives. On the first ballot, eight states voted for Jefferson and six voted for Burr, with two being equally divided. Over several days, the House voted more than 30 times without breaking the deadlock. At the goading of Alexander Hamilton and others, (who, while opposed to Jefferson, saw him as the proverbial "lesser of two evils" in comparison to Burr) several Federalists did not cast ballots, allowing the Democratic-Republicans in the House to elect Jefferson on the 36th ballot.
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