A Simplified look at The 12th Amendment and its Impact on US Elections.

Electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

What Exactly Does the 12th Entail?

In the U.S. Constitution, the 12th Amendment states that: 

⚠️ Heads-up: The 12th Amendment's original wording is very long. Don’t read the whole thing if you don't want to! We'll break this beast down in a bit. 

“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.” (Constitution Center)

That is a lot... but don’t worry! We’ll walk through what the 12th amendment means in simpler terms! 😵

Historical Context: A Long Time Ago in a Nation Far, Far Away…  

Ratification—Gotta Be in Agreement!

On December 9, 1803, the Amendment was passed through Congress and later ratified on June 15, 1804 during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, but if we really want to know how this Amendment came to be, we need to look at a little bit of the U.S.'s history of friendship, rivalry, and revolution. 🔫 

Before this Amendment, the Electoral College chose presidents (which still holds today). A key difference is that the electors from each state (the number of representatives a state had in the House and the Senate) had TWO votes. Then, the candidate that received the most votes would be president, and the runner-up would be vice president. 🥇🥈 

Unfortunately, this system is inherently problematic. Imagine if we had Donald Trump as president and Hilary Clinton as vice president after the 2016 election! We would get nothing done! 😭

This is why after the 1800 elections, Thomas Jefferson proposed the 12th Amendment. Jefferson had been the vice president during John Adams’ presidency, and they did not get along. Seriously, they hated each other. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would disagree on everything, which led to the country not getting done with anything. 🤼‍♂️

Then came the 1800 elections, which was the first election where…

• The incumbent didn’t get reelected! 😨

• There was a transition in power without any bloodshed! (Remember the revolution?) 🩸

• The House (recall: worst-case scenario) chose the president! 🏠

To the Framers, the second bullet point was a big deal. John Adams was from the Federalist Party, and Jefferson was from the Democratic-Republican Party, yet the transition of power between the two was (almost) smooth and peaceful. 🕊️ 

The Democratic-Republican Party chose Jefferson and Burr as the “presidential and vice-presidential candidate,” though technically it didn’t work that way. They were hoping that Jefferson would get the most votes and Burr the second most. Someone seemed to have messed up the voting because Jefferson and Burr ended up tied with 73 votes. The election then went into the House, where each state cast one vote. 

Quick notes:

• The DR Party swept Congress (both chambers, in fact), but because they hadn’t taken office yet, the Federalist House (Adams’ party) holds the power on who becomes president. 💪

• On top of that, Burr suddenly changed his mind and decided he wanted to become president. And since Adams and the Federalist Party didn't like Jefferson, they were all going to vote for Burr. 😈

How did these complications get addressed, then? Enter Alexander Hamilton, who thought both Burr and Jefferson were evil. But he also thought that Jefferson was the "lesser evil" of the two, so he convinced everyone to vote for Jefferson, who became our third president. ✌️

Tangent of the Day: A few years later, Burr was convicted for murdering Hamilton. Hamilton died in a duel with Burr, and everyone was convinced that Burr killed Hamilton. The duel itself is a long story, so check this out if you're interested! 💀

When Jefferson became president, he proposed this amendment because his first vice president was Aaron Burr. Because of this new amendment, Jefferson was allowed to run for president with a running mate in the next election. 🏃

Tangent of the Day: Remember how Adams and Jefferson also had a terrible relationship? On top of that, Adams was short, and Jefferson was tall. Imagine how that went. They ended up dying on the same day, which was July 4th, 1826. Before Adams died, he famously said, "Thomas Jefferson survives," though technically Jefferson had already passed a few hours ago. It's kind of ironic how after a long rivalry, they ended up dying on the same day. 📅

The Amendment in a Nutshell (and Changes Over Time!)

Now onto the part everyone has been waiting for: what exactly is the 12th Amendment in a nutshell? Initially, the 12th Amendment changed Article II Section 1 of the Constitution, or the election process. Later, a portion of the 12th Amendment would be changed by the 20th Amendment—that's for another article, though! 🗳️ 

Here’s some changes that were made: 😍

So, these are some of the changes by the 12th Amendment to our election system. After a couple of prolonged historical conflicts, it appeared that everyone agreed that presidents should have running mates so no enemies would hold office together. 😊

...and That's It!

At the end of this article, you should be able to explain what the 12th Amendment did to our election system! Just remember the #1 rule of thumb: the president and the vice president DON'T hate each other politically. Sounds like a win-win to me! 🏆