Today we celebrate the anniversary of the 12th Amendment (ratified June 15, 1804). Here’s what you need to know:

WHAT IT DOES

The 12th Amendment combined a party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates onto one ticket.

WHY IT WAS ADDED

Originally, Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, of the Constitution prescribed that whoever received the most electoral votes would become president, and whoever received the second-highest amount would become vice president–regardless of party affiliation. (Political parties, in fact, are never mentioned in the Constitution.)

In 1796, we had the only election that resulted in a president and a vice president drawn from opposing tickets–John Adams from the Federalist Party and Thomas Jefferson from the Democratic-Republican Party.

What’s more, in 1800, a tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr meant the House of Representatives had to settle the election.

The difficulties of the clashing Adams-Jefferson administration in 1796 and the chaos of the Election of 1800 convinced Americans that the Electoral College system needed to be changed. Within just a few years, the 12th Amendment was approved.

WORD-FOR-WORD

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; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate.

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.

The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

The person having the greatest 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.

Civic holidays are occasions to commemorate America’s history, celebrate our rights and responsibilities as citizens, and learn about our constitutional ideals. Download a PDF of the 2013 Civic Calendar here.

Holly Munson is the assistant editor of Constitution Daily.

Pa.’s Capitol. Source: Ad Meskens

While Article II, Section 1 and the 12th Amendment describe the Electoral College’s structure and procedures, the Constitution leaves the selection method of the electors to the states (“Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature may direct”). As a result, it is perfectly legal for state politicians, such as Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, to propose and enact changes in a state’s selection method.

In fact, in the early Republic, selection methods varied widely. Some states delegated the presidential decision to state legislatures who selected the electors. In others, electors were chosen by the voters in either their congressional district or on a statewide basis.

Related Story: Constitution Check: Is winner-take-all Electoral College voting in trouble?

Prior to the 1800 election, six of the 16 states changed their method of selection to ensure the majority party’s preferred presidential candidate won the maximum electoral votes. Thomas Jefferson even wrote to Virginia governor James Monroe, asking him to pursue a legislative change: “All agree that an election by districts would be best, if it could be general: but while ten States choose either by their legislatures or by a general ticket, it is folly and worse than folly for the other six not to do it.”

Since the 1830s, most states have used a popular vote method and a winner-take-all electoral vote allocation. Currently, Maine and Nebraska are the only states that allocate their electoral votes by congressional district, meaning that the statewide winner receives the state’s two at-large electoral votes and each congressional district winner receives an additional vote. In 2008, Barack Obama won the second congressional district in Nebraska, which resulted in the first modern-day electoral vote split: four votes for John McCain and one for Obama.

While Democrats are now accusing Republicans in Pennsylvania and other states (e.g., Virginia, Wisconsin, and Michigan) of “rigging” the system and “cheating,” it wasn’t all that long ago that the Democrats were considering similar electoral vote reforms.

In 2004, Democrats placed an initiative on the general election ballot in Colorado to change to a proportional allocation method. And during the congressional session that followed Al Gore’s 537-vote loss in 2000 in Florida, which led to all of that state’s 25 electoral votes being awarded to George W. Bush, three Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives (James Clyburn, Eliot Engel, and Bob Clement) introduced legislation to make the electoral votes in every state be awarded by the district method. Further, nearly half the states at the behest of Democrats considered altering their vote allocation method.

Simply put, parties are political and presidential elections are serious matters. No party likes losing a presidential election they believe they should have won. And every party will look for ways to tilt the game toward their favor in the next round.

Still, the present reform proposals are likely to go the way of the hundreds of others that have been considered since the 1960 election: nowhere. The one thing that will persist, however, is the unpopularity of the selection method among members of the losing party.

Lara M. Brown is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Her research interests include national elections, presidential aspirants, congressional incumbents, and political scandals.

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The 12th president fights in the War of 1812.

1. For starters, there’s the 12th president: Zachary Taylor. The former general was elected in 1848, but he only served 16 months in office before dying at the age of 65. He was the last member of the Whig Party elected as president and he fought in the War of 1812.

2. And then there is the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. Passed in 1804, the 12th Amendment was a result of the infamous presidential election and House runoff vote of 1800.

Somehow, presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, tied in the election. That caused constitutional chaos in the House, as Alexander Hamilton stepped in to support his bitter enemy, Jefferson, over Burr. The 12th Amendment eliminated that problem in June 1804.

3. Next, how about the 12th justice appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court? It’s Alfred Moore of North Carolina. Moore was appointed in 1800 and quit in 1804. In that time, Moore did little due to health issues. He was also the shortest Supreme Court justice, standing 4 feet 5 inches tall.

4. The 12th state to join the United States was North Carolina. It joined the Union on November 21, 1789. In the Civil War, it was one of the last of the Confederate states to secede from the Union. Two presidents were born in North Carolina:  James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson. But neither man resided there just before they took office.

5. Going backwards to the Colonial era, the year 1712 saw two significant events that would have ramifications after the United States formed its own country. In that year, the colony of Pennsylvania banned the importation of slaves, and the colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina were created.

6. A century later, the year 1812 got its own war, as the United States clashed with the British and their allies. The fight stretched into early 1815, as the sides reached a stalemate. The ensuing “Era of Good Feelings” under President James Monroe was an experiment in nonpartisan government that ended in 1824.

7. The year of 1912 could be called the “Year of Bad Feelings,” as three candidates fought for office: Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt. Wilson capitalized on the split between the current president (Taft) and former president (Roosevelt) to win the election. Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt to finish in second place.

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8. And in the year 2012, President Barack Obama won re-election in a hard-fought campaign against GOP nominee Mitt Romney. The election featured feisty debates, a ton of TV ads, and the growth of social media and digital research as campaigning tools.

Here are four other December 12 dates that are historically significant:

9. On December 12, 2000, the Supreme Court issued its ruling on the Bush v. Gore case, which settled the presidential election.

10. On December 12, 1745, Founding Father John Jay was born. Jay was the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, a diplomat, and a vocal opponent of slavery.

11. On December 12, 1787, the state of Pennsylvania ratified the Constitution. It was the second state to do so, and the defeat of the Anti-Federalists paved the way for the Constitution’s approval in other states.

12. And last but not least, December 12, 1915, marks the birth of Francis Albert Sinatra in Hoboken, N.J.  The singer-actor was an American icon and was also associated with President John F. Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan.

Tim Tebow

The folks at Ladbrokes, who offer “prop bets” on U.S. elections, have Tebow as a 200-1 bet as Romney’s running mate this fall. (If you think the Tebow issue isn’t serious, Fox News recently did a segment on it.)

Link: Check Current GOP VP Odds

Those are long odds for any candidate, but it’s also a sure bet for Ladbrokes, since the U.S. Constitution bars Tebow from running, at least for now, for office as vice president or president.

The reason? It’s not because Tebow was born in the Philippines (his parents were U.S. citizens).

It’s because the 12th Amendment bars anyone under the age of 35 from running for president or vice president.

Glenn Beck

Ladbrokes puts another pop culture figure in the same class as Tebow: radio and TV show host Glenn Beck.

Unlike Tebow, Beck is eligible to run for the highest office in the land. Beck, 48, was born in Everett, Washington. Beck also has been praising Romney.

But he just signed a $100 million radio contract, and would need to put that on hold to run for office.

Donald Trump

Another media star is listed as a 100-1 shot of getting the nomination as vice president: Donald Trump.

Trump has his lucrative contract with NBC for “The Apprentice,” and he was told by NBC when he flirted with a presidential bid to make a choice: take our money or be fired.

Trump picked the NBC Peacock over the Oval Office.

Michael Bloomberg

The online site InTrade, which runs a speculation market on political candidates, also has some interesting long-shot candidates who are getting some interest among gamers.

Michael Bloomberg, the current New York City mayor, is on the list of potential candidates that InTrade members can speculate on.

Of course, Bloomberg has a job currently, left the Republican party in 2007 and is the 11th-richest person in the United States. (If he were to run, Bloomberg could be his own super PAC.)

David Petraeus

A more serious name that pops up among the vice presidential long shots is David Petraeus, the current Central Intelligence Agency director and retired four-star U.S. Army general.

Petraeus is a registered Republican but he told Fox News in 2010 that he hadn’t voted since 2002.

Fred Smith

And one name that is on the betting board online is Fred Smith. Ladbrokes has Smith at the same odds as Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Allen West.

If you follow the business news, you’ll know Smith as the founder of Federal Express. He also was a fraternity brother of George W. Bush at Yale and worked with John McCain’s campaign in 2008.

Smith was also briefly mentioned as a running mate for McCain in 2008, before he picked then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

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