Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides that members of the Electoral College , called electors, vote for one person as president and for another as vice president . The amendment—proposed on Dec. 9, 1803, and ratified (approved) on July 27, 1804—resulted from complications that arose during the election of 1800.
The amendment states, “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.”
At the time of the election of 1800, each elector voted for two candidates, not designating which the elector wanted for president. The candidate who received the most votes became president, and the runner-up became vice president. Thomas Jefferson , the presidential candidate of the Democratic-Republican Party , and Aaron Burr , the party’s vice presidential candidate, received the same number of votes. The tie threw the election into the House of Representatives. The House chose Jefferson, but the process took so long that people feared it would fail to choose before Inauguration Day. The House has chosen one other president— John Quincy Adams in 1825. The Constitution initially set Inauguration Day for March 4. The 20th Amendment, adopted in 1933, moved the date to January 20.
