Selarra Armstrong

Selarra Armstrong October 15, 2008 History Fire The 12th Amendment specifies that electors shall cast distinct votes for the president and vice president, rather than electoral votes for two men. Before the 1800 presidential election when an elector cast his ballot he listed his top two choices for president. The choices weren't ranked as "first choice" or "second choice" and no mention of vice president was made on the ballot. One list was then drawn up that included both names from every elector's ballot. The person with the majority of votes from the total numbers of electors was named president. The person with the next highest number of votes was named vice president. If two people had a majority and the same number of votes, then the House of Representatives would choose between them which would be president; the other would be vice president. If no one received a majority then the House would choose the president from the top five candidates. From the remaining four, the one with the most electoral votes would be vice president. If two or more people were tied for second on the list the Senate would choose among them the vice president. After the 1800 Presidential Election, the 12th Amendment was adopted to fix a flaw in the Constitution that had allowed Thomas

Jefferson to tie in the Electoral College with his vice presidential candidate Aaron Burr. The election was then sent to the House of Representatives, which required 36 ballots to finally elect Jefferson president. The 12th amendment is still at same for a various amount of reasoning. The main reason is, of what took place between Jefferson and Adams when they tied. Now that the Electoral College has taken over, it is their responsibility

to

elect

the

president

and

vice

president.

Each

presidential candidate has a slate of electors assigned to that particular candidate. When the candidate wins the popular vote in a state or the District of Columbia, the electors assigned to that candidate are the ones who vote in the Electoral College. When the votes are added at the end it comes down to the Electoral College to whom has won that state. The Electoral College plays a huge role in the election for whom is president of the United States of America. If it were not for the Electoral College, the decision of president would be really hard decision. So that’s why it is up to electoral college to decide.