![]() ![]() But electing a vice president remained a challenge. Shaken by the constitutional weakness the election exposed, in 1804 Congress passed the 12th Amendment, which gave the Electoral College separate votes for presidents and their running mates. The fiercely partisan House of Representatives deadlocked 35 times before breaking the tie, giving the presidency to Jefferson. That backfired too when running mates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes for president in 1801. The parties tried to rectify that by establishing a system of running mates. As political parties emerged, presidents were paired with vice presidents who were diametrically opposed to their politics and who actively worked against them. They would preside over the United States Senate, serve as a tie-breaking vote, oversee impeachment trials, and supervise the counting of the Electoral College’s vote.īut the system swiftly broke down. The Constitution conferred few powers on the vice president. ( Here's the difference between a caucus and a primary election.) The candidate with the most votes would become president the runner-up would become vice president. In order to reduce the danger of deadlock, they required each elector to select a presidential candidate from a different state. The founders feared that state loyalties would never produce a frontrunning candidate under this system. The founders had planned to let the Senate leader-elected by the body itself-assume the presidency if the president were incapacitated.īut then the convention devised the Electoral College, composed of representatives from each state who would convene every four years to elect a president. The role of vice president was a governmental afterthought-it was created only at the very end of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, which relegated it to a committee that handled unfinished business. ![]() Here’s what you need to know about the position. But the role of vice presidents has evolved dramatically through the years, from irrelevant throughout much of history to a potential instrument of power today. No woman has ever been elected vice president.Īt any moment, the vice president of the United States could become the world’s most influential leader. Though women have been nominated for the vice presidency, Harris is the first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to be nominated by a major political party. Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate in the 2020 presidential election. Former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joseph Biden has announced U.S. ![]()
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