Comment on So how will VP picks be done?

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Gestrid@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

That’s exactly what happened in 1800. Both Jefferson and Burr, who were from the same party, tied in the electoral college vote. Some people in the party didn’t like Jefferson, but they but didn’t like the opposing party even more.

Each electoral college member got two votes. So all the electoral college members who were part of what would be the winning party ended up casting one vote for Burr and one vote for Jefferson, resulting in a tie. (Due to slow communication in those days, they all assumed someone else was going to be the one who would cast the tie-breaking vote.)

The tie went to the House of Representatives to break it, as is specified in the Constitution. Unfortunately, neither Burr nor Jefferson got the majority vote needed even after thirty-five separate votes. On the thirty-sixth vote, Alexander Hamilton managed to convince some others to vote for Jefferson, and he got the majority vote he needed and became president.

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