PrintSmith wrote: If there are 9 electors and each elector casts a vote for president and a vote for vice-president, how many total votes have been cast?
The answer to this word problem is 18 total votes have been cast because (9x2)=18
Read the amendment again Z:
. . . and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President . . .
Do I really need to provide another vocabulary lesson so that you understand the use of distinct with regards to the ballots cast for Vice-President?
And there's that condescension again.
The state of Colorado has nine electoral votes according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Look it up. That they vote for the President and the Vice President does not change the number of electors the State of Colorado has. Nor does it change the number of electoral votes the State of Colorado has. They vote for President and Vice President on distinct ballots, just as you and I do when we cast our ballots in an election. That we cast a single vote for a range of candidates on a ballot does not alter the fact we each have one vote.
This is part of our problem, you and I. We both have a tendency to get down into the minutiae of the issues. In fact, I'd posit we may even unwittingly allow each other to draw the other into those kinds on inanity. The above is an example of that very thing.
The State of Colorado has nine electoral votes for President and nine electoral votes for Vice-President Z. That this is true is evidenced by the requirement for a distinct ballot for the Vice-President. What would that ballot of the elector need to be distinct from other than the ballot for president Z? That, after all, is the only other ballot referenced in the 12th Amendment and is therefore the only ballot that the one for Vice-President would need to be distinct from.
The 12th was ratified because the Democrats of that era decided, in a fit of what can only be described as juvenile retribution, to attempt to seat as president the candidate which would deny the clear will and intent of the people. In order to deny future Democrats an opportunity to repeat such mischief, the Constitution was altered such that the two votes cast by the electors would no longer be equal. One would be cast for president and one would be cast for vice-president. What the 12th Amendment didn't do was eliminate one of the ballots cast by the electors, which is what would have to be the case for your assertion to be correct.
Want further proof? Research the results of the 1836 presidential election. Van Buren secured enough electoral votes to be chosen as president, but his running mate, Richard Johnson, fell one vote short of the number required to be elected as vice-president and so the Senate, under the rules established in the 12th Amendment, selected the vice-president, the only time the Senate has done so in the entire history of the Union thus far. If your belief were true, this could not have happened. That it did is yet more proof that you are mistaken in your belief, as if anything more than what has been presented to you prior were necessary to prove this.
