test number
of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number
be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no
person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list,
the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose
shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a
majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be
eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Purpose and Operation of the Amendment

This amendment, which supersedes clause 3 of section 1 of article II, of
the original Constitution, was inserted on account of the tie between
Jefferson and Burr in the election of 1800. The difference between the
procedure which it defines and that which was laid down in the original
Constitution is in the provision it makes for a separate designation by
the Electors of their choices for President and Vice President,
respectively. The final sentence of clause 1, above, has been in turn
superseded today by Amendment XX. In consequence of the disputed
election of 1876, Congress, by an act passed in 1887, has laid down the
rule that if the vote of a State is not certified by the governor under
the seal thereof, it shall not be counted unless both Houses of Congress
are favorable.[3] It should be noted that no provision is made by this
Amendment for the situation which would result from a failure to choose
either a President or Vice President, an inadequacy which Amendment XX
undertakes to cure.

Electors as Free Agents

Acting under the authority of state law, the Democratic Committee of
Alabama adopted a rule requiring that a party candidate for the office
of Presidential Elector take a pledge to support the nominees of the
party's National Convention for President and Vice President and that
the party's officers refuse to certify as a candidate for such office
any person who, otherwise qualified, refused to take such a pledge. One
Blair did so refuse and was upheld, in mandamus proceedings, by the
State Supreme Court, which ordered the Chairman of the State Democratic
Executive Committee to certify him to the Secretary of State as a
candidate for the office of Presidential Elector in the Democratic
Primary to be held on May 6, 1952. The Supreme Court at Washington
granted certiorari and reversed this holding.[4] The constitution