CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 7

ARTICLE II.

SECTION 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President
of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the
Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for
the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof
may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of
Senators and Representatives to which the 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 chuse 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 chuse the
President. But in chusing 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 neces-
sary 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 chuse from them by Ballot the Vice
President.]

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing 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 eligi-
ble 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

*This clause has been superseded by the twelfth amendment, p. 14.