why did congress decide the election of 1800? Select two that apply.
a. Based on the outcome, it was mandated by the US Constitution.
b. The popular vote was a tie.
c. No candidate won the electoral vote.
d. Not enough citizens voted to determine the outcome.
a. Based on the outcome, it was mandated by the US Constitution.
c. No candidate won the electoral vote.
The correct answers are:
a. Based on the outcome, it was mandated by the US Constitution.
c. No candidate won the electoral vote.
In the election of 1800, no candidate won a majority of the electoral votes, resulting in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. According to the Constitution, in such a situation, the decision would go to the House of Representatives. The House voted multiple times before finally selecting Thomas Jefferson as the winner.
The correct options that apply to why Congress decided the election of 1800 are:
a. Based on the outcome, it was mandated by the US Constitution.
c. No candidate won the electoral vote.
To determine this, we need to understand the context of the election of 1800. The election of 1800 was a significant presidential election in the United States, and it involved a highly contested race between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both running as Democratic-Republican candidates against the Federalist incumbent John Adams.
The election process during that time required each elector to cast two votes without differentiating between their choices for president and vice president. The candidate who received the most electoral votes became president, while the candidate with the second-highest number became vice president. In the case of a tie, or when no candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the US Constitution provided the process by which the election would be decided.
In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received 73 electoral votes, resulting in a tie. As no candidate won a clear majority, the decision went to the House of Representatives, as mandated by the Constitution (option a). In the House, the Representatives voted thirty-five times between Jefferson and Burr, but each vote ended in a tie. It took several days and multiple rounds of voting before Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist, made a crucial intervention, persuading his fellow Federalist Representatives to switch their votes in favor of Jefferson. Finally, Jefferson secured the majority of the state delegations' votes, and he was declared the winner.
Therefore, Congress decided the election of 1800 because no candidate won the electoral vote (option c), and it was mandated by the US Constitution (option a).