Can U.S. president and vice president be from the same state? What 12th Amendment tells us
Amendment XII works in tandem with Article II. In short, voters elect state lawmakers who decide up on Electoral College electors who pick the president and vice president.
- Paul G. Summers, a lawyer, is a former appellate and senior judge, district attorney general, and the attorney general of Tennessee.
The U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1789, is our supreme law. The first ten amendments were ratified in December 1791.
The Eleventh Amendment was ratified in 1795 and the Twelfth in 1804.
Amendment XII is about the election of president and vice president (VP).
Article II establishes the ...”executive Power, (which) shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
He or she is elected for a term of four years, with his/her VP. The legislatures of the various states elect the president and VP through the Electoral College and not by popular vote.
“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives the State may be entitled in the Congress....”
Tennessee, for example, has 11 electors in the Electoral College: Nine for the number of U.S. representatives and two for the U.S. Senators. Delaware has three electors; California, 54; Florida, 30; and New York, 28.
How the 12th Amendment works in practice
Amendment XII modifies and amends Article II in part. Both should be read in conjunction with each other.
Under our constitutional republic, voters elect the state legislators. The state legislatures decide under Article II the process whereby electors get on the slate for a candidate and the process for electing electors for one candidate or another.
The electors elect those high offices; and the electors are representative of a state’s population and number of federal legislators (senators and representatives).
There currently are 538 electoral votes in the Electoral College; a majority, or 270, elects the president and the VP.
In January after the November elections, Congress meets in joint session and counts the votes. If no candidate receives a majority, then the House of Representatives votes by states, with “each state having one vote.” (This means that Tennessee gets one vote, and California one vote.).
A process follows in the Senate if no candidate gets a majority vote for vice president.
The election duties are split between the U.S. House and Senate
The 12th Amendment teaches us that if no candidate for the highest office receives a majority in the Electoral College, the vote for president is made by the House.
Likewise, the Senate elects the VP when there is no majority. That procedure should be completed before the incumbents’ terms end. This process is not used often.
(Editor’s note: Learn more by researching the elections of President John Quincy Adams in 1824 and Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson in 1837).
The first sentence of the 12th Amendment states “ (T)he Electors shall meet…, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves….”
There are two distinct ballots. Does this mean that a candidate for president and VP cannot be from the same state?
No, but the risk is that all of the electoral votes from that state for the president and VP may not be counted. Or the courts may find that only the votes for president would be counted.This could have made a significant impact in the election’s outcome in 2000.
Dick Cheney changed his residence from Texas to Wyoming days before George Bush picked him for VP candidacy. Cheney had been a former Congressman from Wyoming. Bush was from Texas, with 40 electoral votes.
If the courts had not found that Cheney was from Wyoming, would we have had a different leader or leaders? History is clear.
Regardless of a candidate’s qualifications, a presidential candidate should not pick a vice presidential candidate, on the same ticket, if they are inhabitants of the same state.Not following that advice spells problems. (Do not be the test case.)
Paul G. Summers, a lawyer, is a former appellate and senior judge, district attorney general, and the attorney general of Tennessee. Raised in Fayette County, Judge Summers resides in Nashville and Holladay.