12th 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 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 the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the PresidentThe 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.


Breakdown...
 This Ammendment changed the PROCESS of how a President/Vice-President is elected.

• The President and Vice-President are voted on separately.
•  Congress picks from the top 3 candidates.
•  The Vice-President must have the same qualifications as the president (35 yrs old, and lived 14 consecutive years in the U.S.).
• Strongly reccomends that the Vice-President and President be from separate states.
• Did not change the makeup of the Ellectoral College.
• No elecotor may vote for both candidates of a Presidential ticket.

The issue that pushed for this Amendment was because Aaron Burr, a Vice President candidate, and Thomas Jefferson, the Presidential candidate received the same number of votes which resulted in the vote going to the House of Representatives. I think I would feel a little cheated if this happened today especially if the House of Representatives picked the person that I didn't vote for. It would almost seem like the Government could choose their own President . Luckily thanks to the 12th Amendment this should never happen again, because now they are voted on separately.



This funny post depicts how good publicity (such as kissing a baby) can effect the voting process. Many times the public, myself included are buisy and distracted with work that we fail to do research on who we should vote for. What things do they value/promote? We also have to consider the fact that they may see what the majority of the people value and use that information to gain a majority vote. That does not necessarily indicate that they will uphold what they propose. For example, I could say, "I wish to see every child in America fed, housed, and on a successfull path towards good careers and a brighter future." Well of course who wouldn't wish that? But that does not indicate that once he obtains your vote he will follow through with proposed improvements.