Constitution Day Resource
State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person
holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of
whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they
shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which
list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the
United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall,
in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates,
and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes
shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors
appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal
number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot
one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on
the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the
President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having
one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two
thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every
case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes
of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who
have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which
they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of
the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall
any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five
years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability
to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice
President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death,
resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer
shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be
removed, or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall
neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been