Twelfth Amendment
Election Mechanics · Fixed a real design flaw that nearly broke the 1800 election
Ratified in 1804, the Twelfth Amendment requires separate electoral votes for President and Vice President — a direct response to a genuine constitutional crisis in the election of 1800, when the original system produced a tie between running mates.
The 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.
Twelfth Amendment, ratified 1804
The text
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.
Note: A portion of Article II, section 1 of the Constitution was superseded by the 12th amendment. *The bracketed passage was superseded by section 3 of the 20th amendment. Spelling and punctuation as transcribed by the National Archives.
What Actually Went Wrong in 1800
Electors originally cast two votes for President, full stop
Under the original system, each elector cast two votes, both for President — the runner-up simply became Vice President. Once organized political parties emerged, with running mates intended for separate offices, this created a real problem: in 1800, Thomas Jefferson and his own running mate Aaron Burr tied with the same number of electoral votes, throwing the election into the House of Representatives for 36 rounds of voting before Jefferson finally won.
This amendment exists because of a problem the framers never anticipated
A common misconception is that the original Constitution’s electoral system was designed with organized political parties and running mates in mind. It wasn’t — the framers largely didn’t anticipate the rise of formal party tickets, and the original electoral college design assumed electors would exercise independent judgment about two separate, unaffiliated candidates. The 1800 crisis is a direct result of political reality outpacing the document’s original design.