Russ
02-28-2016, 09:19 AM
After seeing an article on what could happen if Bloomberg runs, as he has threatened to, I read the 12th Amendment myself. I don't think it will happen, but just for fun, here's where the 12 Amendment would take us:
- If no one gets over 50% of the electoral votes for President, then the top 3 contenders are sent to the House of Representatives. But it is not one ballot for each Congressman, it is one ballot for each state. So the Congressmen for each state have to get together and, by group majority vote, decide for whom to cast their state's one ballot for President. 26 ballots are required for a President to be elected in the House.
- If the Congressman within a state are deadlocked in deciding who to cast their state's one ballot for, then that state's ballot is forfeited.
- The 12th Amendment was written in 1803, back when they didn't have running-mates and the Vice-President was just the second-place person running for President, so the resulting President and Vice-President could be members of different parties. This may explain what happens if the voting in the House doesn't result in any one candidate receiving 26 votes. The House can vote any number of times, but if they still haven't elected a President by January 20th, then the vote shifts over to the Senate to elect the Vice-President.
- The Senate votes, with each Senator getting one ballot, and it is a simple majority of the voting Senators, so they are likely to easily elect someone VP in a short time. This is the incoming Senate, by the way - the one that just got sworn in on January 20th.
- The newly elected Vice-President is the acting President immediately, and runs the country while the election goes back to the House to decide on the President. There would be a good chance that the person elected President would not be the running-mate of the person elected Vice-President.
We could, for example, have an election where Trump get 45%, Hillary gets 45%, and Bloomberg gets 10%. If the House doesn't give Trump 26 ballots, then on January 20th the Senate gets to pick the VP, and they might pick Hillary's running-mate, whoever that is, who becomes the acting President. The House might then eventually pick Trump, who gets to have Hillary's running-mate as his VP.
- If no one gets over 50% of the electoral votes for President, then the top 3 contenders are sent to the House of Representatives. But it is not one ballot for each Congressman, it is one ballot for each state. So the Congressmen for each state have to get together and, by group majority vote, decide for whom to cast their state's one ballot for President. 26 ballots are required for a President to be elected in the House.
- If the Congressman within a state are deadlocked in deciding who to cast their state's one ballot for, then that state's ballot is forfeited.
- The 12th Amendment was written in 1803, back when they didn't have running-mates and the Vice-President was just the second-place person running for President, so the resulting President and Vice-President could be members of different parties. This may explain what happens if the voting in the House doesn't result in any one candidate receiving 26 votes. The House can vote any number of times, but if they still haven't elected a President by January 20th, then the vote shifts over to the Senate to elect the Vice-President.
- The Senate votes, with each Senator getting one ballot, and it is a simple majority of the voting Senators, so they are likely to easily elect someone VP in a short time. This is the incoming Senate, by the way - the one that just got sworn in on January 20th.
- The newly elected Vice-President is the acting President immediately, and runs the country while the election goes back to the House to decide on the President. There would be a good chance that the person elected President would not be the running-mate of the person elected Vice-President.
We could, for example, have an election where Trump get 45%, Hillary gets 45%, and Bloomberg gets 10%. If the House doesn't give Trump 26 ballots, then on January 20th the Senate gets to pick the VP, and they might pick Hillary's running-mate, whoever that is, who becomes the acting President. The House might then eventually pick Trump, who gets to have Hillary's running-mate as his VP.