Uh, when did the originally system ever have the US Senate choose both the President and the VP??
Really, it never happened. The electoral college has always picked the President and Vice-President. When there was no majority or a tie, then the House of Representatives, with the States each having ONE vote chooses the President, and the Senate chooses the Vice-President.
dvwjr
The Senate was formed for a reason. It came after the HofR existed. The Senate was formed so that each state had 2 Senators, or in other words, equal representation and a counterbalance to the House Of Representatives which is heavily slanted toward states with higher population density.
OK class, close but no cigar yet. Article 2 Sec. 1. First, it must be understood, on Nov 2 you will not be voting for a President, you will vote for an Elector, who will presumably, but not necessarily, vote for your Presidential candidate. Yes, there are state laws requiring Electors to vote as the state vote goes, but that is not Constitutional law. Two cases, one from NC, the other from West Virginia actually got to the Supreme Court, in both instances, SCOTUS ducked and ruled the question moot, in that an overwhelming majority had spoken and would be unaffected by a ruling.
Wise choice by the nine wise robes. Article II, sec 1, if there be a tie, the House of Representatives shall "chuse", and should that come up a tie, "then from the five highest on the List the said House shall shall in like manner chuse the President." In this incredibly unlikely event, votes shall be taken by states, each state having one vote. In that event, the person coming in second shall be Vice-President, save in another lotto odds tie, then, and only then does the Senate chime in to elect the Vice-President.
Now, a hypothetical exercise for the class: In Nov. a Republican has been elected by a comfortable margin, no Florida style dispute. Between Nov. and the meeting of the Electoral College in mid Dec. the President-elect dies in a tragic accident. (I am freely cribbing from Jeff Greenfield's underrated book, THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE). The Vice President actually is as dumb as a box of rocks, just to add to the fun. Who is the next President?
You, at the back of the room, stumbling in half drunk from last night and going "Duh, I don't know", you have accidentally got it right. The correct answer is, "NOBODY KNOWS". It will be whoever the body of totally unknown electors chooses, and so long as their choice is a natural born citizen, not a felon, they can elect my garbage man President. Care to argue otherwise, I am looking at my ever so handy copy of the Constitution. We have provided for Presidential disability, permanent or temporary, but NOTHING in the Constitution covers that period between election day and that day on which "Congress may determine the Time of chusing the electors and the day on which they shall give their Votes, which day shall be the same throughout the United States.'
That will teach me to repeat things that I have heard before checking out the validity of the statement.
My brother made this comment to me some time ago and I never checked it out.
Now I'm going to have to kill him :)
I retract my statement and thank you for pointing out the error.