Under those old rules ... can you imagine what it would be like to have Hillary as Trump’s VP? He’d have to send her on “fact finding missions” and “goodwill tours” to the far reaches of the planet.
Romney as Obama’s?
McCain as Obama’s?
Kerry as W’s?
Gore as W’s?
Dole as BJ’s?
HW as BJ’s? (This would have been a good one to watch...)
We dodged some bullets.
Hillary would NOT be Trump’s VP under the old system. Each elector got TWO votes.
Trump had 2 faithless electors but one of them still voted for Pence. So Pence would be President, and Trump would be Vice President. (and Hillary and Kaine would have tied for third)
From the very beginning of the post-Washington era the plan was to throw away 1 vote from a VP so there wouldn’t be a tie. In 1796 there was a plot by A. Hamilton to elect the Federalist VP selection over John Adams by getting some Jefferson peeps to give their 2nd vote to him. Adams supporters overcompensated by voting for others for VP and Jefferson ended up in 2nd place.
In 1800 whoever was supposed to not vote for Aaron Burr failed to do so and there was a tie. And even though he was the clear VP nominee, Burr refused to back down and the party in control of the House, that was just defeated, had to pick between TJ and Burr and it took weeks. That was a ridiculous situation (and so was 1796, would you want that intrigue every time?). The 12th amendment was extremely necessary. Thank God the constitution can be amended.
Political parties are a natural feature of government. Unless you are in some kind of utopia where they aren’t a bunch of scum who want to suckle on the government tit, then you need to organize against them because you can bet your ass they will be organized. Nebraska has a non-partisan leg now, it’s a boon to leftists and RINOs who use the system to their advantage while conservatives get screwed.