Role of Vice-President in Election

Article II of the U.S. Constitution provides for the election of a President and Vice-President by electors chosen from each state. Originally, the Vice-President was the individual running for President who came in second: "In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the VicePresident." The Twelfth Amendment reduced the likelihood that a President and Vice-President would be from different political parties. The Constitution only gives the Vice-President two jobs, one being to serve as President Pro Tem of the Senate in order to break a tie in that body. It is the other job that makes the Vice-President important--he is to serve as President in case of the death of the President while in office. For half a century, this provision was not invoked. That ended with the death of William Henry Harrison and the succession of John Tyler. In the next century, the Vice-President took over when a President was killed or died on four occasions, and a decade later, Vice-President Gerald Ford became President when Richard Nixon resigned. The mantra for the choice of Vice-President became "only a heartbeat away," yet presidential candidates continued to select a running mate based on political considerations rather than on the best person to take the Oval Office if required to do so.

Many see the selection of a running mate as one of the first tests of the leadership ability of the presidential nomin

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sident" (Hoopes 151). In general, the role of the Vice-President has been enhanced in recent years. The constitutional duties of the Vice-President remain the same, while added duties have been given by Presidents who know it is a thankless job and who also know that they can gain political benefits from having a more active Vice-President: Recent Vice-Presidents have been especially active in Presidential missions and goodwill tours throughout the world. These missions have brought the Vice-Presidents into contact with world leaders and have made them personally familiar with world problems (Feerick and Feerick 10). This may also contribute to the ability of modern Vice-Presidents to run for President later on their own. After the end of the Nixon Administration, there was much concern raised in congress about issues of succession, about when a Vice-President would step forward and become President, and specifically about what might happen if a president were not dead but only incapacitated. Nixon had had an operation which caused many to ask these questions. When Ronald Reagan was shot, the issue came to the fore once more. In 1973 and 1974, first the Vice-President (Agnew) and then the President (Nixon) resigned, a

Category: Government - R