The Vice President of the United States is elected on a joint ticket with the President: voters cast one ballot for the pair in November, state electors then cast separate ballots for each office in December, and the vice presidential candidate who receives at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes wins the office after Congress certifies the count on January 6.1National Archives. What Is the Electoral College If no one reaches 270, the Senate picks the Vice President from the top two finishers.
Who Can Run for Vice President
The qualifications are the same as the presidency. Under Article II, a candidate must be a natural-born U.S. citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for at least 14 years.2Legal Information Institute. Article II Executive Branch Section 1 The 12th Amendment extends those requirements to the vice presidency: anyone constitutionally ineligible for the top job cannot serve as Vice President either.3Cornell Law Institute. Amendment XII
The 12th Amendment adds one geographic wrinkle that shapes almost every modern ticket. Electors cannot vote for both a presidential and vice presidential candidate who live in the elector’s own state.3Cornell Law Institute. Amendment XII Two candidates from the same state can still run together, but they would lose all electoral votes from that state. That is why the major parties almost always pair candidates from different states.
How a Running Mate Gets on the Ticket
The original Constitution had no separate election for Vice President. Whoever came in second in the electoral vote got the job, which repeatedly forced political rivals to share the executive branch.4U.S. Senate. The Senate Elects a Vice President The 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, replaced that with separate electoral ballots for each office.3Cornell Law Institute. Amendment XII
Today the presidential nominee picks a running mate during or after the primaries. The choice becomes official when delegates confirm the ticket at the party’s national convention. Selections tend to reflect strategy around geography, ideology, or demographics, with the goal of a unified team rather than two rivals stapled together.
If a nominee has to leave the ticket after the convention, the parties handle the replacement differently. The Democratic National Committee can name a successor directly, as it did in 1972 when Sargent Shriver replaced Thomas Eagleton. The Republican process is less defined and could involve reconvening the national convention or turning to the Republican National Committee.
What Voters Do in November
On Election Day, you cast one ballot for a President and Vice President ticket. There is no separate line for the running mate. Voting for the presidential nominee is simultaneously a vote for the vice presidential nominee, and the combined popular vote in each state determines which slate of electors that state sends to the Electoral College. Since the 12th Amendment took effect, this joint-ticket structure has kept the two offices tied to the same electoral mandate.
The Electoral College Vote
After the November election, each state’s electors gather on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December at a location set by state law, usually the state capitol.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 7 Meeting and Vote of Electors The Electoral College never assembles as a single national body; electors meet the same day in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The 12th Amendment requires them to cast separate ballots for President and Vice President.3Cornell Law Institute. Amendment XII Electors prepare six signed certificates listing all votes cast, with one list for the presidential vote and another for the vice presidential vote.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 9 Certificates of Votes for President and Vice President Those certificates are sealed and sent by the fastest available method to the President of the Senate in Washington, D.C.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 11 Transmission of Certificates by Electors
Faithless Electors
Any obligation to vote for the pledged candidate comes from state law, not the Constitution itself. In 2020 the Supreme Court ruled in Chiafalo v. Washington that states can enforce elector pledges and penalize those who break them.8Supreme Court of the United States. Chiafalo v. Washington At the time of that ruling, roughly 15 states backed their pledge laws with some form of sanction, most often by immediately replacing the faithless elector rather than fining them. Not every state has such a law, so a rogue vote for a different vice presidential candidate remains possible in some jurisdictions.
Congressional Certification on January 6
Congress meets in joint session on January 6 to count the electoral votes. The sitting Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides, opening the sealed certificates while appointed tellers record and tally the votes. Once the count is done, the presiding officer announces the results, and that announcement is the official declaration of the winner.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 15 Counting Electoral Votes in Congress
A vice presidential candidate needs a majority of all 538 electoral votes, meaning at least 270, to win.1National Archives. What Is the Electoral College The winner is inaugurated on January 20, the date set by the 20th Amendment.10Library of Congress. U.S. Constitution Twentieth Amendment
The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 tightened the rules for this session. The law clarified that the Vice President’s role during the joint session is purely ceremonial, with no authority to accept, reject, or resolve disputes over electoral votes. It also raised the threshold for objecting to a state’s electoral votes: instead of one member from each chamber, an objection now requires support from at least one-fifth of the members of both the House and Senate.11Congressional Record. Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act
What Happens If No One Reaches 270
If no vice presidential candidate hits 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment sends the decision to the Senate.3Cornell Law Institute. Amendment XII Senators choose between the two candidates who received the most electoral votes. Unlike the parallel presidential contingent election in the House, where each state delegation gets one vote, every Senator casts an individual ballot.
A quorum of two-thirds of all Senators must be present for the vote, and the winner needs a simple majority of the full Senate, which currently means 51 votes.3Cornell Law Institute. Amendment XII This has happened exactly once. In 1837, the Senate elected Richard Mentor Johnson as Vice President after he fell one electoral vote short of a majority.4U.S. Senate. The Senate Elects a Vice President
Vice Presidents Who Were Not Elected to the Office
Not every Vice President arrives through the process above. The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, lets the President nominate a replacement whenever the vice presidency becomes vacant mid-term. That nominee must be confirmed by a majority vote in both the House and the Senate.12Legal Information Institute. 25th Amendment The provision has been used twice: Gerald Ford was confirmed in 1973 after Spiro Agnew resigned, and Nelson Rockefeller was confirmed in 1974 after Ford moved up to the presidency. Before the amendment existed, vice presidential vacancies simply stayed open until the next election.