“Each candidate ran under his own affiliation. The top vote getter was President. The second vote getter was VP.”
That sounds like a good approach. Why did it change?
When the Constitution was written, they had no idea that political parties would develop. In 1800 the Jeffersonian Republicans edged out the Federalists in the electoral college, but both Jefferson and Burr had identical electoral vote totals, which meant that the House of Representatives had to determine the winner—and it was dominated by Federalists who were so hostile to Jefferson they would rather see Burr win, or perhaps allow March 4 to arrive with no one chosen to be the new President.
That sounds like a good approach. Why did it change?
You would always have President and Vice President who are political opponents. Succession reverses the last election.
We've got Dummies who are still griping about the "stolen" elections of '00 and '04. Couldn't you just imagine how death of the president would stir up suspicions and accusations of an assassination orchestrated by the Veep and his (or her) cohorts?
Jefferson was Adam’s VP. They has a chance to be great together at a pivitol time in our history.
Jefferson did everything he could to undermine Adams so he could win the Presidency in the next election.
Even though the men reconciled later in life and wrote an amazing series of letters about the nature of our government it was still a dirty move by Jefferson.