Amendment XII

"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 the 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."

* Superseded by section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment

By Nate Segal

Article II of the Constitution provided for the election of president and vice-president. Each elector cast two votes. Today, by provision of the Twenty-Third Amendment, the District of Columbia has been assigned three electors. Add to these 435 electors, the number of representatives in the House, and one hundred electors, the number of Senators for our fifty states, and we arrive at a total of 538 electors.

Before this amendment, electors would have cast 1,076 votes (based on our apportionment), an equal number. Two candidates could garner exactly half the votes. What happened in 1800 was that Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of votes — not necessarily exactly half the votes (need to check).

According to Article II, Congress would vote for president, and the other candidate who received the same number of electoral votes became vice-president.

The Twelfth Amendment was enacted in 1804 to prevent a reoccurrence of the bitter election of 1800.