So did y'all know you can't pick somebody from your same state to be your running mate?
Sounds like there are misconceptionsâŚ
America 101: Can the president and vice president be from the same state?
SARAH PRUITTUPDATED:AUG 31, 2018ORIGINAL:JUL 12, 2016
https://www.history.com/news/can-the-president-and-vice-president-be-from-the-same-state
There are many misconceptions about the rules of a president choosing their running mate. Thereâs no law or regulation against a president and vice president of the United States being from the same state. The reason why some people mistakenly believe such a prohibition exists comes down to a particular aspect of the Electoral College system laid out in Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
Article II states: âThe 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.â
Under the original system, electors did not distinguish between candidates for the nationâs top two offices; the candidate with the most votes became president, while the runner-up became vice president. The 12th Amendment, adopted in 1804 after two chaotic elections, mandated that electors cast separate ballots for president and vice president. However, the rule preventing an elector from voting for two people from his home state remained in effect under the new system.
In most elections, this quirk in the system wouldnât even matter. In 2008, Barack Obama could have chosen a running mate from his home state of Illinois in either 2008 or 2012 with no adverse effect; the same goes for Ronald Reagan in 1980 or â84, George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Bill Clinton in 1992 or â96.
But if an election turns out to be particularly close, the rule could potentially come into play. It almost did in the notoriously contentious election of 2000. When Texas Gov. George W. Bush chose Dick Cheney as his running mate on the Republican ticket, Cheney had been living and voting and paying taxes for five years in Texas. Shortly before the election, however, Cheney obtained a Wyoming driverâs license and put his Dallas home on the market. (He had a vacation home in Wyoming, which is the state he had formerly represented in the U.S. Congress.) Good thing for him he did: The Bush-Cheney ticket ended up winning with 271 electoral votesâjust a slim five-vote marginâover Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, a total they certainly wouldnât have hit without Texasâ 32 votes.