1800 United States presidential election

President of the United States

**October 31 – December 9, 1800
February 11–17, 1801 (contingent election)**

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1804 →

## Overview

**Nominee**
**Thomas Jefferson**
John Adams

**Political party**
Democratic-Republican
Federalist

**State**
Virginia
Massachusetts

**Electoral vote**
73
65

**Delegate vote**
**10**

**Popular vote**
**41,330**
25,952

**Percentage**
**61.4%**
38.6%

**Nominee**
Aaron Burr
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

**Political party**
Democratic-Republican
Federalist

**State**
New York
South Carolina

**Electoral vote**
73
64

**Delegate vote**
8

**Popular vote**
0
0

**Percentage**
0.0%
0.0%

Green denotes states won by Jefferson and orange denotes states won by Adams

The **1800 United States presidential election** was the fourth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from October 31 to December 3, 1800. Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party. The United States House of Representatives decided the race between Jefferson and former United States Senator Aaron Burr of New York in a contingent election on February 17, 1801. The election was a political realignment that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican leadership.

## Results

### Electoral vote

Jefferson and Burr carried every state that had supported the Democratic-Republicans in 1796, made gains in Maryland, and picked up Burr's home state of New York. In the six states choosing electors by some form of popular vote, they won a landslide over Adams and Pinckney, polling 15,846 more votes than the Federalist ticket. Adams made gains in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, but these votes were not enough to offset the Democratic-Republican gains elsewhere. Of the 155 counties and independent cities making returns, Jefferson and Burr won in 115, whereas the Adams ticket carried 40.

While both Jefferson and Burr won a majority of votes in the Electoral College, they were tied, and thus a contingent election was held by the United States House of Representatives.

### Contingent election

Publicly, Burr remained quiet between mid-December 1800 and mid-February 1801, when the electoral votes were counted. Behind the scenes, he faced mounting pressure from within the party to step aside if he and Jefferson should tie in electoral votes. However, there was confusion as to whether or not Burr could simply concede the presidency to Jefferson and become vice president, or whether he would have been forced to withdraw entirely and allow one of the Federalist candidates to become vice president, as the Constitution was unclear on the matter. Regardless, he refused to disavow the presidency.

House Democratic-Republicans, who from the start of the 1800 campaign viewed Jefferson as their candidate for president and Burr for vice president, faced two abhorrent possible outcomes when the House met to vote: the Federalists could engineer a victory for Burr; or the Federalists could refuse to break the deadlock, leaving Federalist Secretary of State John Marshall as Acting President. Neither came to pass however, chiefly due to Alexander Hamilton's energetic opposition to Burr.

In February 1801, the members of the House of Representatives balloted as states to determine whether Jefferson or Burr would become president. There were sixteen states, each with one vote; an absolute majority of nine was required for victory. It was the outgoing House of Representatives, controlled by the Federalist Party, that was charged with electing the new president. Jefferson was the great enemy of the Federalists, and a faction of Federalist representatives tried to block him and elect Burr. Most Federalists voted for Burr, giving Burr six of the eight states controlled by Federalists. The seven delegations controlled by Democratic-Republicans all voted for Jefferson, and Georgia's sole Federalist representative, Benjamin Taliaferro (who was just re-elected to the next Congress as a Democratic-Republican) also voted for him, giving him eight states. The Vermont delegation was evenly split and cast a blank ballot. The remaining state, Maryland, had five Federalist representatives to three Democratic-Republicans, but one of its Federalist representatives voted for Jefferson, forcing its delegation also to cast a blank ballot.

From February 11 to 17, the House cast a total of 35 ballots; each time eight state delegations voted for Jefferson, one short of the necessary majority of nine. On February 17, on the 36th ballot, Federalist Congressman James A. Bayard Sr., Delaware's sole representative, changed his vote from Burr to no selection, joined by his allies in Maryland and Vermont. This changed the Maryland and Vermont votes from no selection to Jefferson, giving him the votes of 10 states and the presidency. The four representatives present from South Carolina, all Federalists, also changed their 3–1 selection of Burr to four abstentions.

Due to the experiences of this and the previous election, sentiment for a new way of selecting the president and vice president rose significantly, resulting in the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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