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The first clause of the first sentence of Amendment 12 of the U.S. Constitution is a puzzling construction.

The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves;

What does this mean? Suppose the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates are of the same state. Electors must meet in their respective States and vote in that state. Thus all of these people (the President and VP candidates, and the electors) will all be of the same state.

It seems a self-contradictory requirement.

Barmar
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Chozang
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2 Answers2

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This requires any elector to cast at least one of their votes for president or vice president for someone not from the state of the elector.

If the presidential and vice-presidential candidates were of the same state, the electors from that state would be unable to vote for both of them.

In practice, parties ensure their presidential and vice-presidential candidates do not come from the same state; otherwise, they risk failing to elect the ticket as a pair. This risk would present itself in a close election where the home state electors would have to split their votes.

Dick Cheney changed his residence from Texas to Wyoming to avoid this risk when being selected to be George W. Bush's running-mate.

Jen
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Suppose the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates are of the same state

The original election system was that the candidate that got the most elector votes would become the President, while the runner up would become a Vice President.

This resulted in 1796 in Thomas Jefferson becoming the VP under John Adams, despite being from the opposing party.

The amendment is designed to allow parties to nominate candidates for both the President and the VP position running on the same ticket (the system we are using today), with the condition that they're not from the same State - otherwise risking the electoral votes from their state. For example, Gavin Newsom couldn't have been Kamala Harris's VP pick due to this condition. Similarly, Matt Gaetz couldn't be Trump's VP pick (just as an example), since both states' electors would be critical for their respective elections.

littleadv
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