Episode 4 of 4
Adams elected vice president as runner-up
- When
- February 4, 1789
- Where
- Electoral College result
John Adams received 34 electoral votes, one short of a majority; under pre-Twelfth Amendment rules the runner-up became vice president without needing a majority.
Adams received 34 electoral votes, one short of a majority. Because the Constitution, prior to ratification of the Twelfth Amendment, did not require an outright majority in the Electoral College to elect the runner-up as vice president, Adams was elected to that post, becoming the first vice president alongside Washington's unanimous presidential election.
Sources
- 1788–89 United States presidential election Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.