Article 2 Section 1

Article 2 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 [no] 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 [choose] 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 choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote;