Fun Fact for the Day 3.7.12

Back in the US Presidential Election of 1796, election strategies were quite different than they are today. Each state nominated a certain number of electors and each of these electors in turn had 2 votes with which to vote for any two candidates for president that they wanted. At the end of voting, the person with the most votes would be president and the person with second most would be vice president.

The Federalists all wanted John Adams as their man along with Thomas Pinckney. To ensure that Adams would have more votes than Pinckney, a few delegates were told to cast their second ballot for some other person with no chance of winning.

However, the opposing Democrat-Republican party knew this. They wanted Thomas Jefferson to be president, but they had fewer delegates than the Federalists which made getting Jefferson elected unlikely. Thus, if they couldn't get their man in, at least they could mess up the Federalists' plan. Alexander Hamilton coerced some of the electors pledged to Thomas Jefferson to cast their second vote for Thomas Pinckney in the hope that Pinckney would end up with more votes than Adams and become the new president. The Federalists got wind of this plan and therefore tried to have some of their delegates switch their second vote to ensure Pinckney would not precede Adams on the final tally.

Unfortunately for the Federalists, the miscounted, and too many delegates switched their vote away from Pinckney, leaving Thomas Jefferson in second place and thus the new vice president with John Adams. It would be the only time that the President and Vice President were from opposing parties, and would actively work against each other to preempt the other's policies.