Why is there a twelfth amendment?

Answer 1

Originally the person with the largest number of votes in the Electoral College became President and the person with the next largest number of votes became Vice-President. This resulted in the two main competitors becoming President and Vice-President. They were often of very different opinions and unable to work well together. The 12th Amendment established separate ballots for President and for Vice-President. No person running for President would then end up as Vice-President to his opponent. This has resulted in the Presidential Ticket, in which each party nominates one person for President and one for Vice-President, and a team from a single party is usually elected to office.

Answer 2

Due to the election of 1796 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Originally the second place candidate was to be Vice President. However it proposed a problem for Thomas Jefferson had different political ideas than John Adams and he could not get anything done.

Answer 3

Congress does not enact amendments. Only states do.

Congress proposed the Twelfth Amendment to correct a flaw in the way the Electoral College chose the President and Vice President. The original system was that as several individuals ran for President, the President would be the one who had the most votes and the Vice President would be the one who had the second most votes. In 1796, this led to the election of John Adams, a Federalist, as President and Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic Republican, as Vice President. The two were forced to work together even though they were from opposing parties with opposing viewpoints on how government should work. It would be like having Barack Obama as President and John McCain as Vice President today.

In addition, at that time each elector had two ballots to cast. If each one cast one for one major party candidate and one for the other major party candidate, the result would be a tie. Then the president would have to be chosen by the House of Representatives and that process had its own problems in that political wrangling could wind up being the basis for one candidate to be elected over another perhaps more qualified one.

Even under the Twelfth Amendment, political wrangling entered into Presidential elections. IN the 1824 election Andrew Jackson received 99 electoral votes and John Quincy Adams received 84. The House of Representatives chose Adams as President. Henry Clay was then Speaker of the House of Representatives. When Adams took office, he made Clay his Secretary of State prompting Jackson to claim that Adams and Clay and other Representatives had made a "Corrupt Bargain" alleging that Clay had influenced the House to elect Adams in return for Adams appointing Clay to the Secretary of State position.

Answer 4

I've done a little bit of research on this question, which is very interesting. And I just want to state that I am not an expert, by any means, but here is what I've gleaned from my brief reading of certain things.

Ratified in 1804, the 12th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution to correct a flaw in the document as far as who the members of the Electoral College could vote for. At that time, electors had 2 votes; however, both votes were for President.

The 12th Amendment changed that. Electors were and still are directed to vote for a President and also for a Vice-President rather than use both votes for President.

The 1800 election (and I think the 1796 election, as well) had a lot to do with the change.

Answer 5

The Twelfth Amendment attempted to solve this problem by differentiating the candidates for the two offices and then calling on the electors to indicate their favorite for each. Thus, the party system was, in effect, constitutionally recognized by the Amendment, whereas the original scheme of 1787 had been predicated on the Framers' loathing of the very idea of party politics.

The Twelfth Amendment provides, among other things, that "Electors shall . . . vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves." This clearly doesn't prohibit all-Virginia or all-New York tickets; it simply generates a significant disincentive for such tickets inasmuch as the Virginia or New York electors are barred from voting for both of their party's candidates.

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Because of the election of 1800.

Answer 6

Originally the Constitution called for separate elections for the President and Vice President. Usually, the way it worked out is that the loser in the Presidential election would become the Vice President. This system worked out well until the election of 1800, when the electors of the electoral college had a tie-vote between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, though they intended Jefferson as the President and Burr as Vice President. The tie, however, sent the election to be decided in the House of Representatives. The 12th Amendment supercedes the clause in section 3 of the Constitution that concerns the election of the President, making it so that the Presidential election is separate from the Vice-Presidential election so the same snafu doesn't reoccur.

(My source for this answer comes from the Cornell University Law School: Legal Information Institute's Annotated Constitution, located here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt12_user.html#amdt12_hd1 )

Answer 7

The 12th amendment was passed because of the election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1796. Originally, the second place candidate would become the Vice President. Although, that proposed a problem for Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. They both had different political ideas and were from different political parties, and the result was that they couldn't get anything done.

Answer 8

Originally the person with the largest number of votes in the Electoral College became President and the person with the next largest number of votes became Vice-President. This resulted in the two main competitors becoming President and Vice-President. They were often of very different opinions and unable to work well together. The 12th Amendment established separate ballots for President and for Vice-President. No person running for President would then end up as Vice-President to his opponent. This has resulted in the Presidential Ticket, in which each party nominates one person for President and one for Vice-President, and a team from a single party is usually elected to office.