Amendment XII

Amendment XII

Note: A portion of Article II, section 1 of the Constitution was changed by this amendment.

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 persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate.

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.

The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. [And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.]* 

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

*Changed by section 3 of Amendment XX.

Text (in plain English)

This amendment describes the new electoral college such that the President and Vice President are treated as separate ballots. It also mentions two other things: First, when the House chooses not to select a President by March 4 of next year, the Vice President will take his place. Second, the Vice President's qualifications will be the same as that of the President.

Historical Background

When the Founding Fathers were trying to create a new Constitution, they spent more timeabout the selection method of the President in their Convention meetings than any other matter. That was because they were debating on whether the selection of the president should be by Congress or by the people; most believed that the former would give the legislative too much power while the latter would not be representative to the people. Hamilton eventually solved both sides of the problem, suggesting that the President be selected by a special body of presidential electors.

His idea, which made up Article 2, Section 1 of Constitution, is as follows: The electors in each state will cast two electoral votes for President. The person with the most votes will become President while the person with the second most votes would become Vice-President. However, if a tie occurred, the President would be chosen by the House. If a tie occurred again, he would be chosen by the Senate. The Framers believed that their original plan of the electoral college would work.

However, the rise of two political parties (the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans) would introduce flaws in their system through the election of 1796. During this election, John Adams, a Federalist candidate, became President while Thomas Jefferson of the opposite party became his Vice President. This would be the modern equivalent of Romney being Obama’s president. 
The flaws in the electoral college became more apparent in the election of 1800. While Adams ended up competing against his own Vice President, both parties nominated two people intended to run for either President or Vice President and presidential electors to, if elected, vote for their intended nominees. Therefore, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each got 73 votes, producing a tie for the Presidency. While the Party wanted Aaron Burr to run for Vice President, Congress still had to break the tie after 36 ballots since there was no majority vote, making Jefferson President and Burr his Vice President.

To avoid another disastrous election like the ones in 1796 and 1800, the 12th Amendment was passed in 1804 by Congress, making ballots for President and Vice President separate. It also made sure that candidates would vote for their candidates through the Party’s intention.

(Sources from totallyhistory.com and Macgruder’s American Government)

Effects on the US

Every election since 1804 has implemented the 12th Amendment for selecting the president, and no other chaos similar to the elections of 1796 and 1800 have occurred as of today. It also acknowledges the existence of political parties. However, though less chaotic than in 1796 and 1800, three significant flaws from the electoral college have arisen:

1. The first flaw is that the winner of the popular vote will not win the election since the winner-take-all system is used in the electoral college. This has occurred 4 times: 1824, 1876, 1888, and most recently in 2000. This winner-take-all system can also not represent people equally since the electoral votes in the states do not match the states’ populations.
2. The second flaw is the possibility of faithless electors which occurs when a candidate is pledged to vote for the party’s nominee but intends to vote for another candidate. It could change the outcome of an election, but it has not occurred as of today.
3. The last flaw is that the President could be chosen by the House. Although this has occurred only two times since 1824, there are two justifiable objections to this ballot: Since the voting in the House is by states, certain states such as California and Texas can be underrepresented in the ballot. There is also a possibility of the House not being able to select a majority if either the representatives in the States were divided or the ⅔ quorum is not met.

Other suggestions have also been made to replace the electoral college process, such as the District, Proportional, and Popular Plan. Nevertheless, the electoral college continues to be the most representative method of selecting our President.

(Source: MacGruder’s American Government. More info: Pros and Cons of the Electoral College)

Effects on Me
When I go out to vote on election day, we can safely guarantee that our president is elected in the most representative way possible. Firstly, the electoral college way of selecting the President makes the people and the legislative have an equal say in selecting their president. The 12th Amendment also eliminates most of the frauds that could happen when the special body of electors choose the president since it implicitly recognizes their ties to their political party’s motives. Although the electoral college has significant flaws such as unequal electoral vote distribution to state population, such flaws rarely ever occurs or changes the outcome of an election (As of today, 5% of the elections had candidates who didn’t win President even with the majority of the popular vote). Therefore, I think that the 12th Amendment has made the electoral college stand the test of time.