A report on Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, United States Electoral College and Federalist Party

The Twelfth Amendment in the National Archives

Electoral votes, out of 538, allocated to each state and the District of Columbia for presidential elections to be held in 2024 and 2028, based on representation, which depends on population data from the 2020 census. Every jurisdiction is entitled to at least 3.

Certificate for the electoral vote for Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler for the State of Louisiana

In the 2020 presidential election (held using 2010 census data) Joe Biden received 306 and Donald Trump 232 of the total 538 electoral votes.
In Maine (upper-right) and Nebraska (center), the small circled numbers indicate congressional districts. These are the only two states to use a district method for some of their allocated electors, instead of a complete winner-takes-all.

A portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1806

Cases of certificates of the electoral college votes confirming the results of the 2020 US election, after they had been removed from the House Chambers by congressional staff during the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.

The Apotheosis of Washington as seen looking up from the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C.

After the popular election in November, a state's Certificate of Ascertainment officially announces the state's electors for the Electoral College. The appointed Electoral College members later meet in the state capital in December to cast their votes.

Gilbert Stuart, John Adams, c. 1800-1815

Population per electoral vote for each state and Washington, D.C. (2010 census). By 2020 estimates, a single elector could represent more than 700,000 people or under 200,000.

When the state's electors meet in December, they cast their ballots and record their vote on a Certificate of Vote, which is then sent to the U.S. Congress. (From the election of 1876)

This cartogram shows the number of electors from each state for the 2012, 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Following the 2010 Census, New York and Ohio lost two electoral votes, 8 states lost one, 6 states gained one, Florida gained two, and Texas gained four.

This graphic demonstrates how the winner of the popular vote can still lose in an electoral college system similar to the U.S. Electoral College.

Bar graph of popular votes in presidential elections (through 2020). Black stars mark the five cases where the winner did not have the plurality of the popular vote. Black squares mark the two cases where the electoral vote resulted in a tie, or the winner did not have the majority of electoral votes. An H marks each of two cases where the election was decided by the House; an S marks the one case where the election was finalized by the Supreme Court.

These maps show the amount of attention given to each state by the Bush and Kerry campaigns (combined) during the final five weeks of the 2004 election: each waving hand (purple map) represents a visit from a presidential or vice presidential candidate; each dollar sign (green map) represents one million dollars spent on TV advertising.

Half the U.S. population lives in 143 urban / suburban counties out of 3,143 counties or county equivalents (2019 American Community Survey)

It replaced the procedure provided in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, by which the Electoral College originally functioned.

- Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution

In the 1796 election, John Adams, the Federalist Party presidential candidate, received votes from a majority of electors.

- Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution

In 1796, Federalist Party candidate John Adams won the presidential election.

- United States Electoral College

Responding to the problems from those elections, Congress proposed on December 9, 1803, and three-fourths of the states ratified by June 15, 1804, the Twelfth Amendment.

- United States Electoral College

Adams was the winner by a margin of three electoral votes and Jefferson, as the runner-up, became vice president under the system set out in the Constitution prior to the ratification of the 12th Amendment.

- Federalist Party

6 related topics with Alpha

1796 United States presidential election

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The third quadrennial presidential election.

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Jefferson (Democratic-Republican) and shades of yellow are for Adams (Federalist).

Incumbent Vice President John Adams of the Federalist Party defeated former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party.

Under the electoral rules in place prior to the Twelfth Amendment, the members of the Electoral College each cast two votes, with no distinction made between electoral votes for president and electoral votes for vice president.

John Adams

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American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801.

Adams's birthplace now in Quincy, Massachusetts

Boston Massacre of 1770 by Alonzo Chappel

John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence depicts the Committee of Five presenting its draft to Congress. Adams is depicted in the center with his hand on his hip.

The Assembly Room in Philadelphia's Independence Hall, where the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence

Adams frequently clashed with Benjamin Franklin over how to manage French relations.

Treaty of Paris by Benjamin West (Adams in front).

Portrait of Adams by John Trumbull, 1793

Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1795. Washington rarely consulted Vice President Adams, who often felt marginalized and overshadowed by Washington's prestige.

President's House, Philadelphia. Adams occupied this Philadelphia mansion from March 1797 to May 1800.

A political cartoon depicts the XYZ Affair – America is a female being plundered by Frenchmen. (1798)

Thomas Jefferson, Adams's vice president, attempted to undermine many of his actions as president and eventually defeated him for reelection.

Alexander Hamilton's desire for high military rank and his push for war with France put him into conflict with Adams.

John Marshall, 4th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and one of Adams's few dependable allies

John Adams, c. 1816, by Samuel Morse (Brooklyn Museum)

Tombs of John and Abigail Adams (far) and John Quincy and Louisa Adams (near), in family crypt at United First Parish Church

John Adams by Gilbert Stuart (1823). This portrait was the last made of Adams, done at the request of John Quincy.

He was the only president elected under the banner of the Federalist Party.

Each state's presidential electors gathered on February 4, 1789, to cast their two votes for the president.

The complications arising out of the 1796 and 1800 elections prompted Congress and the states to refine the process whereby the Electoral College elects a president and a vice president through the 12th Amendment, which became a part of the Constitution in 1804.

1800 United States presidential election

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The fourth quadrennial presidential election.

Aaron Burr tied Jefferson in the Electoral College vote

In what is sometimes called the "Revolution of 1800", Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party.

Under the rules of the electoral system in place before the 1804 ratification of the 12th Amendment, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes, with no distinction made between electoral votes for president and electoral votes for vice president.

Adams c. 1843–48, photographed by
Mathew Brady

John Quincy Adams

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American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829.

Adams's birthplace in Quincy, Massachusetts

1815 US passport issued by John Quincy Adams at London.

Painting of John Quincy Adams by Thomas Sully, 1824

In the Adams–Onís Treaty, the United States acquired Florida and set the western border of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

General Andrew Jackson, Adams's opponent in the 1824 and 1828 United States presidential elections

Painting of Quincy Adams by Charles Osgood, 1828

Quincy Adams appointed Henry Clay as Secretary of State

Daguerreotype of Quincy Adams by Philip Haas, 1843

Portrait of Quincy Adams by William Hudson, 1844

John Quincy Adams, c. 1840s, Unknown author

BEP engraved portrait of Adams as president

Adams's portrait at the U.S. National Portrait Gallery by George Bingham c. 1850 copy of an 1844 original

Adams's cenotaph at the Congressional Cemetery

John Quincy Adams's original tomb at Hancock Cemetery, across the street from United First Parish Church

Presidential Dollar of John Quincy Adams

Official portrait of Adams by George Peter Alexander Healy, c. 1858

Tombs of Presidents John Adams (far left) and John Quincy Adams (right) and their wives Abigail and Louisa, in a family crypt beneath the United First Parish Church.

Initially a Federalist like his father, he won election to the presidency as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and in the mid-1830s became affiliated with the Whig Party.

Because no candidate won a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives held a contingent election, which Adams won with the support of Speaker of the House Clay, whom Adams would go on to controversially appoint as his Secretary of State.

As no candidate won a majority of the electoral votes, the House was required to hold a contingent election under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment.

Aaron Burr

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American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805.

Burr's maternal grandfather Jonathan Edwards

The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775, oil on canvas by John Trumbull, 1786

Aaron Burr and Theodosia Bartow Prevost, portrait by Henry Benbridge

Burr, Hamilton, and Philip Schuyler strolling on Wall Street

Early twentieth-century illustration of Burr (right) dueling with Hamilton

St. James Hotel, Burr's final home and place of death, in a late 19th-century photograph (Staten Island Historical Society)

An unintentional electoral college tie between Burr and presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson resulted in the House of Representatives voting in Jefferson's favor, with Burr becoming Jefferson's vice president due to receiving the second-highest share of the votes.

However, he had moderate Federalist allies such as Senator Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey.

A lasting consequence of Burr's role in the election of 1800 was the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which changed how vice presidents were chosen.

1824 United States presidential election

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The tenth quadrennial presidential election.

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Jackson (Democratic-Republican), shades of red are for Adams (Democratic-Republican), shades of yellow are for Clay (Democratic-Republican), and shades of green are for Crawford (Democratic-Republican).

Map of House of Representatives delegation votes

Caucus curs in full yell, by James Akin, 1824 (critique of "the press's treatment of Andrew Jackson, and on the practice of nominating candidates by caucus")

Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford

The result of the election was inconclusive, as no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote.

Because none of the candidates for president garnered an electoral vote majority, the U.S. House of Representatives, under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment, held a contingent election.

The previous competition between the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party collapsed after the War of 1812 due to the disintegration of the Federalists' popular appeal.