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
2. 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.
3. 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 necessary 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 eligible 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.
6. In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
7. The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
8. Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
1. The executive power (power to carry out laws) is given to the President of the United States of America. He will hold office for a term of four years. A Vice President will be chosen for the same term. (Amendment 22, adopted in 1951, limited the number of terms and made other changes.)
2. The President and Vice President will be elected as follows. Each state legislature will decide on a way to choose electors. Each state can have as electoral votes as it has senators and representatives in Congress. No government official can be an elector. (The electors together are known as the electoral college. On the ballot, you are really voting for a set of electors, not for the candidates themselves. Each set of electors on the ballot has promised to vote for a certain candidate for President and Vice President when the electoral college votes.)
3. The electors will meet in their own states and vote for two people. At least one of the two must come from another state. (The effect is that the President and Vice President must come from different states.) The electoral will send a list of the people they voted for and how many votes each one got to the government. The president of the Senate will open the lists and count the votes in front of the members of Congress. The person who got the most votes will be President. The person with the second highest number of votes will be Vice President. (Amendment 12, adopted in 1804, changed this. Now electors vote separately for President and Vice President.) If there is a tie, the House of Representatives will choose which one is President. If there is a tie for Vice President, the Senate will choose. In either case, each state get one vote.
4.Congress may choose the time for picking electors and the day when all electors must vote. All electors throughout the United States will meet at the same time.
5. In order to be President, a person:
must be a natural-born citizen of the United States,
must be at least 35 years old,
must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.
6. If a President dies, resigns, is removed from office, or becomes too sick to do the job, the Vice President carries out the duties of the President. Congress can pass laws about what should be done if both the President and Vice President are unable to do the job. (Laws passed by Congress say that if there is no President, the Speaker of the House will become President. If the Speaker cannot, then the president pro tempore of the Senate becomes President. Amendment 25, approved in 1967, also tells more about what happens when the office of the President or Vice President is empty.)
7. The President will be paid a salary. The salary cannot be changed during his terms. He cannot take any other pay from the government.
8. When the President takes office, he must take the following oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."