Electoral College Before The Twelfth Amendment
Under the original procedure for the Electoral College, as provided in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, each elector could cast two votes. Each elector could not vote for two people inhabiting the same state as that elector. This prohibition was designed to keep electors from voting for two "favorite sons" of their respective states. The person receiving the greatest number of votes, provided that number equalled a majority of the electors, was elected President.
If there was more than one individual who received the same number of votes, and such number equaled a majority of the electors, the House of Representatives would choose one of them to be President. If no individual had a majority, then the House of Representatives would choose from the five individuals with the greatest number of electoral votes. In either case, a majority of state delegations in the House was necessary for a candidate to be chosen to be President.
Selecting 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 would choose one of them to be Vice President, with each Senator casting one vote. It was not specified in the Constitution whether the sitting Vice President could cast a tie-breaking vote for Vice President under the original formula.
In the 1796 election, John Adams, the Federalist Party presidential candidate, received a majority of the electoral votes. However, the Federalist electors scattered their second votes, resulting in the Democratic-Republican Party presidential candidate, Thomas Jefferson, receiving the second highest number of electoral votes and thus being elected Vice President.
The 1800 election exposed a defect in the original formula in that if each member of the Electoral College followed party tickets, there would be a tie between the two candidates from the most popular ticket. It also showed that the House of Representatives could end up taking multiple ballots before choosing a President.
Additionally, it was becoming increasingly apparent that a situation in which the Vice President had been a defeated electoral opponent of the President would impede the ability of the two to effectively work together, and could provide motivation, at least in theory, for a coup d'état (since the Vice President would succeed to the office of President upon the removal or death of the President). In allowing for the President and Vice President to be elected as a ticket (without the tie electoral vote as happened in 1800), the Twelfth Amendment eliminated this possibility, or at least minimized it by lessening the Vice President's motivation for staging such a coup.
Read more about this topic: Twelfth Amendment To The United States Constitution
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