The Role Of A Vice President

According to the first draft of the Constitution, electors voted for two presidents, at least one of which was from a different state than the elector was representing. Whichever candidate received the most votes would become president and the runner-up would be vice-president. This method worked for several years until, in 1800, the unforeseen effect of political parties resulted in a tie for the presidency between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, both of the same party. The resulting dispute over who the president would be led to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.

The main result of the election of 1800 was the peaceful transition of political power and the tie between the two democratic-republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr with seventy-three votes each. The decision was then to be made by the House of Representatives. Due to Alexander Hamilton's help and persuasion by choosing Thomas Jefferson as the lesser of two evils, the House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson as president and Aaron Burr as vice president. As a result of the 1800 election, the Congress and the states passed the Twelfth Amendment in 1804 separating the ballots for the president and for the vice president to prevent the same crisis in the future.

Even though most people assume that the Electoral College result is straightforward, this, however, that is not always the case. The first incident was in the election of 1800, between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, where it ended with the candidates receiving an equal amount of electoral votes. The tie was settled in the House of Representatives, with Thomas Jefferson becoming

The original process for the presidential election is documented in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. Prior to the refined version of the Electoral College process, there was not a distinct election for the president and the vice-president; instead, the candidate with the most electoral votes would receive the title of president and the candidate with the second highest votes would become the vice-president. The twelfth amendment, ratified in 1804 became a necessity because of the problems that arose in 1800 presidential election. During the 1800 presidential election, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received 73 electoral votes, causing a tie; thus, choosing who would be the vice-president became a problem. This was an issue and the 12th Amendment had to be refine the process of the presidential election: resulting in upon a tie, the “House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.” The twelfth Amendment also specified that electors will cast two distinct votes: a vote for presidential candidate and a vote for a vice presidential candidate.

The electoral college, per Wikipedia, is a mechanism set up to select the president and vice president of the United States. (The Electoral college, 2016) It was during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that the founders established Article 2. Article 2 Section 1 details the innerworkings of the executive branch of government. The constitution states, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress”. (The Constitution of the United States, n.d.) The framers of the Constitution had many different ideas about how the selection of our president should go but ultimately

election. John Adams was elected vice president. Washington took the oath of office as the first

The constitution had arranged that the winner and the runner-up would become President and Vice President respectively. The vote was thrown into the House of

The constitution, in the 12th amendment, sets up the system by which we pick a president and vice president. The amendment lays out all of the specific guidelines concerning the electoral college, such as the requirement to only vote for the elected nominees. It lays out emergency plans in the case of a tie, and how electors are chosen. Replacing the guidelines in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, the 12th amendment states, “The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all

History informs us about the first method the parties developed in order to pick their presidential candidates. This method was the congressional caucus. The framer’s method in 1787 was that each elector would cast two electoral votes, each for a different person for president. The person who received the majority of the electoral votes would win the presidential election and the person who received the second most amount of electoral votes won the vice presidential election. However, the rise of political parties and the election of 1800 made a great change to the system. During this time the electors cast their two votes for two different

The decision on how to choose who these electors would vote for was left up to the states. Most states eventually decided to use the general ticket system where all of that state’s votes go to one candidate, whoever receives a majority of the votes in that state. The system for solving ties or failure to win a majority in the electoral college is to send the vote to the House of Representatives. There, each state is given one vote to cast for president. A vote is taken until one candidate has a majority.

The vice president is chosen by the president will support the president. The vice president is also to offer advice to the president and attends his or her duties should the president be absent or impeached.

The Vice President of the United States fills in as President of the Senate and may make the unequivocal choice in case of a tie in the Senate.

It would seem that the founding fathers were a lot smarter than we give them credit for in 1792. This was the year the College, as we call it today the Electoral College, ratified in the Constitution of the United States of America by the colonies. This would also start the longest continuous debate our nation has ever experienced over a single political issue that continues even today. This debate came center stage during the election of 1800 when Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (Jefferson’s Vice President running mate)received the same number of electoral votes for President even though they were running mates (http://www.ushistory.org/us/20a.asp). This tie would lead to changes to the Electoral College of their day and the foundation for the 12th Amendment to our Constitution.

Adams was elected Vice President under George Washington in 1789. According to the Constitution, the Vice President assumed two key duties: he would remain available if the President should leave his post or die; and he was to preside over the Senate, serving as the deciding vote in the case of a

is the job of the vice president to take over as president. I am sure