[SatinDoll]

Um...if my history lessons were correct from 40 years ago, it used to be that the vice president was actually the runner-up at the end of the Presidential elections. It was changed sometime after the Civil War but before the turn of the century. In fact, Andrew Johnson may have been the impetus for that change!

[Alter Kaker]

Um...if my history lessons were correct from 40 years ago, it used to be that the vice president was actually the runner-up at the end of the Presidential elections. It was changed sometime after the Civil War but before the turn of the century. In fact, Andrew Johnson may have been the impetus for that change!

Your history lessons weren't correct. That was only true until ratification of the 12th Amendment, in 1804. The only two elections the situation you describe affected were the elections of 1796 and 1800, both of which had screwy results that needed fixing.