The 12th Amendment

The 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution was first developed on December 9th, 1803, and was thereafter ratified on June 15th, 1804, because it provided new legislation for electing the President and Vice President. Currently, the Electoral College is being reevaluated as a useful part of our government since before the Electoral College was put together, each member cast a single vote. The amendment states that the Electors shall meet in their respective states so as to vote by ballot for President and Vice-President. There is a new consideration given to the fact that the Electoral College must vote a president into office by having 270 votes.

In modern times, we are confused by having to count the popular vote as well as the electoral college vote, both of which matter, but no glaring difficulty with this arrangement was made more clear when Vice-President Al Gore ran for office winning the popular vote but not the electoral college vote. The presidency back then had gone to George W. Bush instead of Gore. With regard to the Electoral College, however, those with the most Electoral Votes become President, as the votes become chosen by State. The Electoral College first began in the 1787 Constitution.

The rules that govern the use of the Electoral College as a tool, are four full rules. The Electors have to vote for two persons of interest, one of whom is outside of the Electors home state. The second rule is that the Electors did not differentiate between a Vice President or a President in the process of selection. The person gaining majority votes becomes president. The third agreement about the Electoral College is that the Electors might fail to win majority approval of a specific candidate. Fast-forward to 1933, where each representative would meet for the first time only a full year after the Election.

We have presidential elections every four years, with a term limit of 8 years total per president. This cannot be changed or trifled with even for a fabulous president, which in the current climate, some people wouldn’t mind having around again. The rules laid out in our Constitution are the rules. A tie vote two to three hundred years ago meant that the House was supposed to break the tie. The House of Representatives has to break that tie to this day. The election for President is decided within this format.

Each state has one vote, and a majority of 26 states is required to win the election using the Electoral College. A possible tie on election night does not mean there is an actual tie, per this website. The trick is to make sure that the tie can be broken even without election tampering on the part of the current political climate. The Constitution was designed with fail-safes, but we need to reevaluate its main purpose. One Electoral vote in New York stands for 550,000 people, since the Electoral College functions on the basis of the population in any given state, whether documented or undocumented.

The Electoral College has not become utterly useless yet. No law says that an Electoral vote can follow the wishes of the people or the Elector themselves. It can be concluded that the 12th Amendment provides protection from illegitimate tampering with the ability to run the country conferred on someone who has earned it with the Electoral votes available that catapults them into office. Given that other countries like the Russian Federation may have abused our political system, it would seem that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but not the electoral vote even with possible interference from the Russian Federation.

Works Cited

https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xii

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

https://www.270towin.com/content/electoral-college-ties/

https://www.theperspective.com/debates/politics/is-it-time-to-do-away-with-the-electoral-college/