The Twelfth Amendment tweaked how the Electoral College functioned to select the president and vice president. There still would be no direct popular election, and electors would still meet in each state to do the voting.

Each state would still get one elector for each representative and senator they had in Congress.

In the first election (1789) four of the eleven states had a popular election to choose their electors.

In the remaining states, the state legislatures chose the electors. By 1832 the voters in all states except South Carolina elected their electors.

You may wonder why only eleven states had electors in 1789. North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution.

Where did the term “Electoral College” come from? “Electoral” comes from Latin meaning “select.” “College” comes from Latin meaning “community” or “association” and is used today at the Vatican for the College of Cardinals.

You know, we use different words for groups, such as a pride of lions, a murder of crows, and a College of Cardinals.

The term “Electoral College” was first used by the Holy Roman Empire, whose emperor was elected by seven princes.

These men were given a time limit of 30 days. If they did not elect an emperor by 30 days, they would be given only bread and water until they did.

What turned out to be problematic with the original functioning of the Electoral College was the voting by the electors for two men for president.

They were expected to vote for the two most qualified. The tally of their votes was sent to the President of the Senate, who, as you may recall, is the Vice President.

The President of the Senate in front of the full House of Representatives and the full Senate counted the tallies.

The person with the highest number of votes would be president (assuming he got a majority), and the second highest would be vice president.

So, what was wrong with this system? It worked just fine for the first two elections when the most popular George Washington was running. But by 1796 political parties had formed, and the top two candidates were of opposite parties and did not like each other.

Vice President John Adams of the Federalist Party was elected president. Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic Republican Party was elected vice president but never showed up for work.

In 1800 the candidates had running mates. Adams was running for reelection with Charles Pinckney, and Jefferson was running with Aaron Burr. Remember each elector voted for two men.

When the President of the Senate counted the votes, two candidates were tied for first place–Jefferson and Burr, both of the same party. Article II of the Constitution specified that the House of Representatives would immediately conduct a contingent election, voting ONLY for the two tied candidates and with each state having only one vote.

The House voted 35 times, and Jefferson and Burr were still tied!

On the 36th ballot one person abstained, and Jefferson was elected president, and Burr, vice president.

The Twelfth Amendment changed the Electoral College so that the electors would vote twice, once for president, and once for vice president. In case no candidate got a majority, the House would vote for president, and the Senate would vote for vice president.

This solved one problem, but it did not solve the problem of the winner of the national popular vote not necessarily winning in the Electoral College.

Jacki Richey is a member of Living Democracy: Engaging Citizens, a local citizen group.

Our mission is to inform and educate the Mid-Ohio Valley about how government works on the local, state and federal levels and how citizens can be involved to make our democracy work.

Join us the third Wednesday of each month.