Repeal the 12th Amendment

The 12th Amendment was a short-term answer to a short-term problem. It is long past time to remove it. In 1804 when it was ratified the United States had only 14 states, at the most, which caused a problem in selecting the President and Vice President. Not too surprising considering the number of states voting for a President and the popularity of several individuals following the Revolutionary War. A tie vote would not be surprising, but now with 50 states in the United States a tie would be very unlikely.

When the 12th Amendment was adopted, it ushered in the ‘Party Ticket’ and took away a ‘Check and Balance’ that the Founding Fathers believed necessary to a functioning Constitutional Republic. Originally the Founders designed the election to provide for the winner with the most popular votes and electoral votes as the President and the runner up as Vice President. In itself, this is a ‘Check and Balance’ by having opposing party representatives in the two highest offices.

To carry that point home to the modern-day issues, that would have, from the 2020 election, Biden as the President and Trump as the Vice President and President of the Senate. How would that setup have changed the massive results of the last 4 years?

If you Google the number of Votes cast for Biden and Harris the number is the same, only because they were cast for a ticket, versus individually for President and Vice President.

Even in the 12th Amendment they still require that votes for President and Vice President should be separate and provide for distinct lists for President and Vice President. The 2020 election, should you believe that the Constitutional requirement of separate ballots is the way it should be, the results could not have had exactly the same number of votes for both Biden and Harris.

In true fact, based on the numbers derived from 2020 the person with the second most votes should have been Trump, making him the Vice President and of course, President of the Senate deciding tie votes on bills in the Senate.

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