Compare And Contrast The Problems Faced In The 1796 And 1800 Presidential Elections

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Problems faced in the 1796 and 1800 presidential elections involving the original procedure electing the the president and vice president prompted the creation and passing of the Twelfth Amendment, which requires electors of the electoral college to cast one vote for president and one for vice president. Prior to the amendment’s passage, the electors were unable to indicate which of their two votes was for the president and which was for vice president. Electors did not even necessarily have to cast two votes. It was also not permitted for an elector to vote for two people that came from the same state as that elector. This rule was designed so that electors would not purposefully vote for candidates simply because they were …show more content…

John Adams got a majority of the electoral votes, becoming president. However, Thomas Jefferson got second place in the vote tally, making him vice president. This would’ve left the president with a vice president of the opposing party. At this point in time, the position of “running mate” had not yet been established; candidates ran independently. In the following presidential election in 1800, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had a rematch. The two candidates, however, ended up tied in votes. This gridlock was eventually broken and Thomas Jefferson became the president of the United States on February 17th, …show more content…

The Twelfth Amendment was then created and passed by Congress on December 9th, 1803. The amendment was then ratified the following year on June 15th. The amendment replaced the original procedure as outlined in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3. The Twelfth Amendment made it a requirement that electors cast separate ballots for the president and vice president, as opposed to two votes for president. The amendment states that it is necessary for a vice presidential candidate to receive most of the vice presidential votes in order to become vice president under the Electoral College. The Twelfth Amendment provides that if no candidate for vice president obtains a majority of the votes, than the Senate chooses the vice president, with each Senator having one vote. While the amendment did not change the procedure for when more than one person got a majority, keeping the power of choosing the president to the House of Representatives, it did change the procedure for when no one gained a majority. Instead of choosing the top five people with the highest number of electoral votes, the Twelfth Amendment made it so that the House of Representatives choose and select a president from the top three. The Twelfth Amendment also, in order to prevent the country from being without a leader during any possible problematic gridlocks, made it so that if no one was president on