Editing Vice President of the United States (section)

==Selection process==

===Eligibility===

To be constitutionally eligible to serve as the nation's vice president, a person must, according to the Twelfth Amendment, meet the eligibility requirements to become president (which are stated in [[Article Two of the United States Constitution#Clause 5: Qualifications for office|Article{{spaces}}II, Section{{spaces}}1, Clause{{spaces}}5]]). Thus, to serve as vice president, an individual must:
* be a [[Natural-born citizen|natural-born]] [[United States nationality law|U.S. citizen]];
* be at least 35 years old;
* be a [[Residency (domicile)#United States|resident in the U.S.]] for at least 14 years.<ref name=AC-XII>{{cite web|title=Twelfth Amendment|url=http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/twelfth-amendment|work=Annenberg Classroom|date=December 9, 1804|publisher=The Annenberg Public Policy Center|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|access-date=February 21, 2018|archive-date=February 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222165133/http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/twelfth-amendment|url-status=deviated}}</ref>

A person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of vice president under the following conditions:
* Under [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Clause 7: Judgment in cases of impeachment; Punishment on conviction|Article{{spaces}}I, Section{{spaces}}3, Clause{{spaces}}7]], upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of vice president;
* Under the [[Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States".<ref name="AC-XII"/>
* Under [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution#Participants in rebellion|Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment]], no person who has sworn an oath to support the Constitution, who has later "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States, or given aid and comfort to the nation's enemies can serve in a state or federal office—including as vice president. This disqualification, originally aimed at former supporters of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], may be removed by a two-thirds vote of each house of the Congress.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fourteenth Amendment|url=http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/fourteenth-amendment|work=Annenberg Classroom|date=June 7, 1964|publisher=The Annenberg Public Policy Center|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|access-date=February 21, 2018|archive-date=February 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180226091918/http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/fourteenth-amendment|url-status=deviated}}</ref>

===Nomination===
[[File:GERALDINEFERRARO.jpg|thumb|right|[[Geraldine Ferraro]] speaks at the [[1984 Democratic National Convention]] following her selection as the party's vice presidential nominee.]]

The vice presidential candidates of the major national political parties are formally selected by each party's quadrennial nominating convention, following the selection of the party's presidential candidate. The official process is identical to the one by which the presidential candidates are chosen, with delegates placing the names of candidates into nomination, followed by a ballot in which candidates must receive a majority to secure the party's nomination.

In modern practice, the presidential nominee has considerable influence on the decision, and since the mid 20th century it became customary for that person to select a preferred running mate, who is then nominated and accepted by the convention. Prior to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, only two presidents—Andrew Jackson in [[1832 Democratic National Convention|1832]] and Abraham Lincoln in [[1864 National Union National Convention|1864]]—had done so.<ref name=Smithsonian112014>{{cite magazine|last=Py-Lieberman|first=Beth|title=How the Office of the Vice Presidency Evolved from Nothing to Something|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institutions/how-office-vice-presidency-evolved-nothing-something-180953302/|date=November 18, 2014|magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|access-date=December 10, 2021}}</ref> In recent years, with the presidential nomination usually being a foregone conclusion as the result of the primary process, the selection of a vice presidential candidate is often announced prior to the actual balloting for the presidential candidate, and sometimes before the beginning of the convention itself. The most recent presidential nominee not to name a vice presidential choice, leaving the matter up to the convention, was Democrat [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] in 1956. The convention chose [[Tennessee]] Senator [[Estes Kefauver]] over [[Massachusetts]] Senator (and later president) [[John F. Kennedy]]. At the tumultuous 1972 Democratic convention, presidential nominee [[George McGovern]] selected [[Missouri]] Senator [[Thomas Eagleton]] as his running mate, but numerous other candidates were either nominated from the floor or received votes during the balloting. Eagleton nevertheless received a majority of the votes and the nomination, though he later resigned from the ticket, resulting in [[Sargent Shriver]] from [[Maryland]] becoming McGovern's final running mate; both lost to the Nixon–Agnew ticket by a wide margin, carrying only [[Massachusetts]] and the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]].

During times in a presidential election cycle before the identity of the presidential nominee is clear, including cases where the presidential nomination is still in doubt as the convention approaches, campaigns for the two positions may become intertwined. In 1976, [[Ronald Reagan]], who was trailing President [[Gerald Ford]] in the presidential delegate count, announced prior to the Republican National Convention that, if nominated, he would select [[Pennsylvania]] Senator [[Richard Schweiker]] as his running mate. Reagan was the first presidential aspirant to announce his selection for vice president before the beginning of the convention. Reagan's supporters then unsuccessfully sought to amend the convention rules so that Gerald Ford would be required to name his vice presidential running mate in advance as well. This move backfired to a degree, as Schweiker's relatively liberal voting record alienated many of the more conservative delegates who were considering a challenge to party delegate selection rules to improve Reagan's chances. In the end, Ford narrowly won the presidential nomination and Reagan's selection of Schweiker became moot.

In the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, which pitted [[Hillary Clinton]] against [[Barack Obama]], Clinton suggested a Clinton–Obama ticket with Obama in the vice president slot, which she said would be "unstoppable" against the presumptive Republican nominee. Obama rejected the offer outright, saying, "I want everybody to be absolutely clear. I'm not running for vice president. I'm running for president of the United States of America," adding, "With all due respect. I won twice as many states as Senator Clinton. I've won more of the popular vote than Senator Clinton. I have more delegates than Senator Clinton. So, I don't know how somebody who's in second place is offering vice presidency to the person who's in first place." Obama said the nomination process would have to be a choice between himself and Clinton, saying "I don't want anybody here thinking that 'Somehow, maybe I can get both{{'"}}, by nominating Clinton and assuming he would be her running mate.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/10/barackobama.hillaryclinton|title=Obama scoffs at Clinton's vice-presidential hint|first1=Allegra|last1=Stratton|first2=Daniel|last2=Nasaw|date=March 11, 2008|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|access-date=November 21, 2016|archive-date=November 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122073221/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/10/barackobama.hillaryclinton|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/10/dems.campaign/index.html?iref=nextin|title=Obama rejects being Clinton's No. 2|publisher=CNN|date=March 11, 2008|access-date=November 21, 2016|archive-date=November 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122071859/http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/10/dems.campaign/index.html?iref=nextin|url-status=live}}</ref> Some suggested that it was a ploy by the Clinton campaign to denigrate Obama as less qualified for the presidency.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-obama-clinton-2008-ad-224189 |title= Trump throws 2008 Obama ad in Clinton's face |work= Politico |date= June 10, 2016 |access-date= November 21, 2016 |archive-date= November 22, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161122071709/http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-obama-clinton-2008-ad-224189 |url-status= live }}{</ref>{{failed verification|date = June 2021}} Later, when Obama became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former president [[Jimmy Carter]] cautioned against Clinton being picked as the vice presidential nominee on the ticket, saying "I think it would be the worst mistake that could be made. That would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates", citing opinion polls showing 50% of US voters with a negative view of Hillary Clinton.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/04/uselections2008|title=US elections: Jimmy Carter tells Barack Obama not to pick Hillary Clinton as running mate|first=Jonathan|last=Freedland|date=June 4, 2008|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|access-date=November 21, 2016|archive-date=November 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116022610/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/04/uselections2008|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Selection criteria===

Though the vice president does not need to have any political experience, most major-party vice presidential nominees are current or former United States senators or representatives, with the occasional nominee being a current or former governor, a high-ranking former military officer (active military officers being prohibited under US law from holding political office), or a holder of a major position within the Executive branch. In addition, the vice presidential nominee has always been an official resident of a different state than the presidential nominee. While nothing in the Constitution prohibits a presidential candidate and his or her running mate being from the same state, the "inhabitant clause" of the Twelfth Amendment does mandate that every presidential elector must cast a ballot for at least one candidate who is not from their own state. Prior to the [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 election]], both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney lived in and voted in Texas. To avoid creating a potential problem for Texas's electors, Cheney changed his residency back to Wyoming prior to the campaign.<ref name=AC-XII/>

Often, the presidential nominee will name a vice presidential candidate who will bring [[Ticket balance|geographic or ideological balance]] to the ticket or appeal to a particular constituency. The vice presidential candidate might also be chosen on the basis of traits the presidential candidate is perceived to lack, or on the basis of name recognition. To foster party unity, popular runners-up in the presidential nomination process are commonly considered. While this selection process may enhance the chances of success for a national ticket, in the past it often resulted in the vice presidential nominee representing regions, constituencies, or ideologies at odds with those of the presidential candidate. As a result, vice presidents were often excluded from the policy-making process of the new administration. Many times their relationships with the president and his staff were aloof, non-existent, or even adversarial.{{facts|date=July 2024}}

Historically, the vice presidential nominee was usually a second-tier politician, chosen either to appease the party's minority faction, satisfy party bosses, or to secure a key state.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Horwitz|first=Tony|title=The Vice Presidents That History Forgot|date=July 2012|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vice-presidents-that-history-forgot-137851151/|magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|access-date=December 10, 2021}}</ref> Factors playing a role in the selection included: geographic and ideological balance, widening a presidential candidate's appeal to voters from outside their regional base or wing of the party. Candidates from electoral-vote rich swing states were usually preferred. A 2016 study, which examined vice-presidential candidates over the period 1884-2012, found that vice presidential candidates increased their tickets’ performance in their home states by 2.67 percentage points on average.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Heersink |first1=Boris |last2=Peterson |first2=Brenton |date=2016 |title=Measuring the Vice-Presidential Home State Advantage With Synthetic Controls |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X16642567 |journal=American Politics Research |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=734–763 |doi=10.1177/1532673X16642567 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>

===Election===
{{Main|United States Electoral College}}
[[File:ElectoralCollege2028.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of the [[United States]] showing the number of electoral votes allocated following the [[2020 United States Census|2020 census]] to each [[U.S. state|state]] and the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]] for the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections. 270 electoral votes are required for a majority out of 538 votes possible.]]

The vice president is elected indirectly by the voters of each state and the District of Columbia through the Electoral College, a body of electors formed every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president to concurrent four-year terms. Each state is entitled to a number of electors equal to the size of its total delegation in both houses of Congress. Additionally, the [[Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-third Amendment]] provides that the District of Columbia is entitled to the number it would have if it were a state, but in no case more than that of the least populous state.<ref>{{cite web|title=Twenty-third Amendment|url=http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/twenty-third-amendment|work=Annenberg Classroom|date=March 29, 1961|publisher=The Annenberg Public Policy Center|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|access-date=July 30, 2018|archive-date=July 31, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731062243/http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/twenty-third-amendment|url-status=live}}</ref> Currently, all states and D.C. select their electors based on a popular election held on [[Election Day (United States)|Election Day]].<ref name=CRS2017THN/> In all but two states, the party whose presidential–vice presidential [[Ticket (election)|ticket]] receives a [[Plurality (voting)|plurality]] of popular votes in the state has its entire [[Slate (elections)|slate]] of elector nominees chosen as the state's electors.<ref>{{cite web|title=About the Electors|url=https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html|work=U.S. Electoral College|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|location=Washington, D.C.|access-date=August 2, 2018|archive-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721012941/https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Maine]] and [[Nebraska]] deviate from this {{nowrap|winner-take-all}} practice, awarding two electors to the statewide winner and one to the winner in each [[List of United States congressional districts|congressional district]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Maine & Nebraska|url=http://www.fairvote.org/maine_nebraska|website=fairvote.com|publisher=FairVote|location=Takoma Park, Maryland|access-date=August 1, 2018|archive-date=August 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802041058/http://www.fairvote.org/maine_nebraska|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Split Electoral Votes in Maine and Nebraska|url=https://www.270towin.com/content/split-electoral-votes-maine-and-nebraska/|website=[[270towin.com]]|access-date=August 1, 2018|archive-date=August 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802041034/https://www.270towin.com/content/split-electoral-votes-maine-and-nebraska/|url-status=live}}</ref>

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, the electors convene in their respective states (and in Washington D.C.) to vote for president and, on a separate ballot, for vice president. The certified results are opened and counted during a joint session of Congress, held in the first week of January. A candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes for vice president (currently 270 of 538) is declared the winner. If no candidate has a majority, the Senate must meet to elect a vice president using a contingent election procedure in which senators, casting votes individually, choose between the two candidates who received the most electoral votes for vice president. For a candidate to win the contingent election, they must receive votes from an absolute majority of senators (currently 51 of 100).<ref name=CRS2017THN/><ref>{{cite web|title=What is the Electoral College?|url=https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html|work=U.S. Electoral College|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|location=Washington, D.C.|access-date=August 2, 2018|archive-date=December 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212192807/https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

There has been only one vice presidential contingent election since the process was created by the Twelfth Amendment. It occurred on February 8, 1837, after no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes cast for vice president in the [[1836 United States presidential election|1836 election]]. By a 33–17 vote, [[Richard M. Johnson]] ([[Martin Van Buren]]'s running mate) was elected the nation's ninth vice president over [[Francis Granger]] ([[William Henry Harrison]]'s and [[Daniel Webster]]'s running mate).<ref>{{cite web|last=Bomboy|first=Scott|title=The one election where Faithless Electors made a difference|date=December 19, 2016|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-one-election-where-faithless-electors-made-a-difference|work=Constitution Daily|publisher=National Constitution Center|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|access-date=July 30, 2018|archive-date=February 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214233225/https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-one-election-where-faithless-electors-made-a-difference|url-status=live}}</ref>