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Fourth American presidential election of 1800

AndyHogan14, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

NOTE: Until the election of 1804, the second place winner would be vice president. According to the original Constitutional electoral process, electors would choose two candidates to give an electoral vote to.

Dates

The election of 1800 took place from October 31 - December 3, 1800.

Presidential candidates

• John Adams, incumbent president, for president
• Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, former Minister to France, for vice president

• Thomas Jefferson, incumbent vice president, for president
• Aaron Burr, former Senator from New York, for vice president

Campaigning & major issues

As a result of the 1796 election and the original Constitution, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had to awkwardly work together as president and vice president despite being political rivals. Therefore, in this election, both parties chose a presidential and vice presidential candidate, hoping that electors who voted for their candidate would also vote for their vice presidential candidate. This was the last election before the twelfth amendment to the Constitution was ratified. Federalists attacked Democratic-Republicans for being "radical atheists" while Democratic-Republicans criticized Federalists and Adams for favoring Britain and for the Alien & Sedition Acts. The campaining was so bitter and brutal, giving this election the nickname, "The Political Revolution of 1800".

Electoral college & turn-out

The electoral college stayed the same since 1796, with 70 electoral votes needed to win; 138 in total. A total of 75,142 people voted.

Results

NOTE: Votes for Federalist electors were assigned to Adams, Democratic-Republican votes attached to Jefferson.

First place (president-elect): Thomas Jefferson & Aaron Burr

73/138 electoral votes

Jefferson: 60.5% of the popular vote

Burr: popular vote unknown

Second place: John Adams

65/138 electoral votes

39.4% of the popular vote

Third place: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

64/138 electoral votes

Popular vote unknown

Fourth place: John Jay

1/138 electoral votes

Popular vote unknown

House of Representatives vote in 1801

Because both Jefferson & Burr got 73 electoral votes, they technically tied. Because of this, the House of Representatives had to choose which one would become president and which one would be vice president. It was the outgoing House that voted which was still Federalist controlled. The final results were:

First place (president-elect): Thomas Jefferson

10/16 votes

Second place (vice president-elect): Aaron Burr

4/16 votes

Two members of the House did not cast a ballot.

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