Comments on: Does our primary system work?

By: Mark Ross

Mark Ross — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:55:50 +0000

My pleasure! And, thank you for the response, and amendment! It does sound much more accurate now!

Prior to The 12th Amendment, there was no popular vote, for President, whatsoever.

Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 does get into much detail as to how the electors are selected; and, how they selected a President, and Vice-President, However, to your point: While The 12th Amendment did accommodate the inception of political parties, it doesn’t mention anything, that I can see, of a popular vote, in regards to The President. Which leads me to wonder if we are even following the directions of THe Constitution, by having any popular vote, whatsoever?

Thank you,
Keep up the great work!

Mark

By: NCC Staff

NCC Staff — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:42:41 +0000

Thank you, Mr. Ross. You’re absolutely right about the effect of the 12th Amendment and its accommodation of political parties. What we meant to say was that the Constitution, even as amended, says nothing about how we nominate presidential candidates. As you point out, it has a great deal to say about how we “pick” presidents. We’ve made the clarification to the post and are grateful to you for bringing the point to our attention.

By: Mark Ross

Mark Ross — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 18:23:35 +0000

WOW! I love The Constitution Center, but I am shocked that someone from The Constitution Center actually wrote this post!

‘Yet, our Constitution says nothing about how we pick presidential candidates’

Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 is the original intent. And, The 12th Amendment was created to accommodate political parties.

Respectfully, it looks like someone needs to do some more research!