THE VICE-PRESIDENT

INTRODUCTION:
The US constitution provides for a Vice-President. The office of Vice President possess great
potentialities but little of actual power. Because of this reason many delegates at the
Philadelphia Convention felt the inclusion of provisions for the office of Vice-President
unnecessary. However the provision was ratified along with the constitution. The constitution
requires the Vice-President to possess the same qualifications as are prescribed for the
President.

1. A natural born Citizen of United States
2. Must not be less than 35 years of age
3. Must have resided not less than 14 years in the country

The Vice-President is elected at the same time, in the same manner and for the same terms of
four years the President is. The original draft of the constitution called for candidate securing
second highest votes to be declared the Vice-President. However, the Provision was later
changed in order to accommodate the President with supportive Vice-President.

FUNCTIONS:
The constitution assigns following functions to the Vice-President:
SUCCESSION TO THE PRESIDENCY:
The potential function of the Vice-President, under 25th amendment, is to fill the office of the
President in case the President has died, resigned, unable to perform the Presidential duty or
removed through impeachment. He than assumes the Presidency and all executive powers and
duties are devalued upon him. He will continue the remainder term of the Presidency till the
next Presidential elections. In case both President and Vice-President have died, resigned,
removed or are unable to perform the duties, the constitution calls upon the Congress to decide
on who will continue the office of Presidency till the next elections are held.

Vice-President Lyndon Johnson succeeded to the office of President after the
assassination/death of President John .F. Kennedy in 1963. Vice-President Gerald Ford took the
Presidency after the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. During the Nixons Vice-
Presidency he took the Presidential powers on informal basis for weeks when President D.D
Eisenhower was ill. Vice-President Nixon had to perform Presidential duties three times under
the same circumstances. In the same manner Vice-President George Bush took Presidential
powers during the absence of President Ronald Reagan.

EX-OFFICE CHAIRMAN OF SENATE:
The Article-1, Section-3 of the Constitution calls the Vice President to be the Ex-Office
Chairman of the Senate and Preside over the meetings of the Senate. He also has a vote incase
of a tie. In practice the Vice-President rarely presides over day-to-day matters in Senate. In his
place the Senate chooses a President Pro Tempore (or President for a temporary period or for
a Time.) to preside the meetings.

Another function of Vice President, as a Chairman of Senate, is to preside over the counting and
presentation of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential electoral votes by the U.S Electoral
College, in presence of both the house of Congress.
MEMBER OF THE CABINET:
The Vice-President works as a part/member of the Presidents Cabinet. His association with
administration enables him to be trained in administrative affairs, so that he may be able to
handle the Presidential Office, if chance becomes.
ELECTION PROCESS:
Initially the constitution called for the person securing highest votes to become President, while
the person securing second highest votes in Presidential run to become the Vice-President. If no
one received a majority of votes, then the House of Representatives would choose between the
four highest vote-getters, with each state getting one vote. In such a case, the person who
received the highest number of votes but was not chosen President would become Vice
President. Incase there was a tie in the 2nd phase, than the Senate would choose the Vice-
President.

The framers of the constitution had however not foreseen the PARTY System. In the elections
of 1796, for instance, Federalist John Adams came in first, and Democratic-Republican Thomas
Jefferson came second. Thus, the President and Vice President were from different parties. With
President from one party and Vice-President from another, there was continuous conflict
amongst them. An even greater problem occurred in the election of 1800, when candidates from
same party tied in the elections. The Democratic-Republicans nominated Thomas Jefferson for
the Presidential seat, while they nominated Aaron Burr as well. The intentions for Aaron Burr
were to get 2nd highest votes and become the Vice-President. But instead both Jefferson and
Burr ended up with same number of votes; hence both were candidate for US Presidency. After
35 unsuccessful votes in the House of Representatives, Thomas Jefferson finally won on the
36th ballot and Burr became Vice President.

These constitutional conflicts led the legislature to adopt 12th Amendment in 1804. The
amendment called for the electors to use separate ballots to vote for the President and Vice-
President. Even though this solved the problem at hand, but it lowered the prestige of the Vice-
Presidential office, as the Vice President was no longer the second choice for President.

The constitution also prohibited the electors from voting for both President and Vice
Presidential candidate from the same state as themselves.

Formally, the Vice Presidential candidate is nominated by the party convention. However, it has
long been the custom that the Vice Presidential candidate has been effectively named by the
Presidential candidate. Often, the Presidential candidate will name a Vice Presidential candidate
to bring geographic or ideological balance to the ticket or to appeal to a particular constituency.