Changes

==Election of the Vice President==

==Election of the Vice President==

Originally, the Vice President was the person who received the 2nd most number of votes in an Presidential Election. However, once political parties became the norm, the party at large selected the persons they wished to present for President and Vice President, and nominated them at the same time.  The ballots no longer reflect an individual vote for both the President and a separate one for Vice President, but a single vote that selects both at once.

Originally, the Vice President was the person who received the 2nd most number of votes in an Presidential Election. This system broke down, however, in 1796, when Federalist John Adams won the presidential election and Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson came in second, leading to an executive split between the two parties. There were more problems in 1800 as the Democratic-Republicans failed in trying to engineer the second place finisher, forcing the House of Representatives to choose between Thomas Jefferson and fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr.

 

In 1804, the Twelth Amendment was adopted to solve this problem, creating separate ballots for President and Vice President.

[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]

[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]