Election of 1800

Adams vs. Jefferson

1. The Election of 1800 A HUGE turning point in the way America voted for president

2. Presidential Succession Framers did NOT want the people to elect the president They wanted to select electors who would do this for the people. We will look at the election of 1800 and how that all changed

3. The facts The founders felt that the people would not know enough about the candidates to be able to vote for them There was no media coverage of them at the time

4. The plan Hamilton’s Plan The president and vice-president would be chosen by a group called the PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS

5. Under this plan: The electors would cast votes for TWO candidates, both from the electors’ party The two parties at this time were the Democratic-Republicans, and the Federalists The one who got the most votes would be president The one who got the second most votes would be vice-president

6. In the event of a tie… The House would decide the president The Senate would decide the vice-president

7. The Election of 1800 Every state first selected the Presidential Electors They all voted within their party The electors had to vote for TWO people to be nominated In each party, there were two prime candidates

8. The Candidates In the Demo- Repub party, it was Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr In the Federalist party, it was John Adams and Charles Pinckney

9. The vote Jefferson and Burr each received 73 electoral votes Adams received 65 Pinckney received 64 John Jay received 1 vote Jefferson and Burr were the WINNERS! Uh, what about the tie???

10. To break the tie… Who breaks the tie? The HOUSE It took them 36 more tie-breaker ballots to break the tie They selected Jefferson, which was what they really wanted to do anyway! They wanted Burr as the VP

11. The aftermath As a result of this clearly flawed process… Party nominations for president and vice-president were separated Automatic casting of the electoral votes in line with the pledges of the electors became more scrutinized The 12 th Amendment!! “electors…shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as v-p ”

12. End result With the appearance of parties, the election of 1800, and the 12 th Amendment, the constitutional framework was laid for the presidential selection system as it exists today