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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/run-rubio-run.html says:

Since the Constitution effectively prohibits the election of a president and vice president from the same state, Mr. Rubio can’t hide behind the “fig leaf,” as the Miami pollster Fernand Amandi put it, that he is really angling for the No. 2 spot.

In the United States, can a president and vice president be from the same state?

Snopes (http://www.snopes.com/history/american/vicepresident.asp) says:

Claim: The U.S. Constitution requires presidential and vice-presidential candidates to be from different states.

Status: False.

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    Have you read the Constitution?
    – HDE 226868
    Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 23:53
  • @HDE226868 Is that comment an answer? Or is it a criticism of the question, or a suggestion of how to improve it?
    – ChrisW
    Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 23:56
  • @ChrisW Sort of a comment, but it led me to what I think may be an answer. To user5532 - Both sources debunk the claim. Is there any other specific proof you're looking for?
    – HDE 226868
    Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 23:57
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    politics.stackexchange.com/questions/1038/…
    – HDE 226868
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 0:04
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    I'm interested in why the Snopes answer dissatisfies you, so we don't just end up repeating what they said, with much the same argument and references.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 0:25

1 Answer 1

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Article II, section 1 of the Constitution:

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 not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves....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.

Nothing in there about the President and Vice-President being from different states, just that no elector can pick both a President and a Vice-President from the same state as the elector. The Twelfth Amendment modifies this to specify distinct votes for President and Vice-President, but retains the same "not the same state" clause.

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    Well, basically this says that if both members of a ticket are from the same state, they lose that state by default. Which implies that it would be extremely bad politics to have a president and vice presidential candidate from the same state. This is probably what the New York Times article means by "effectively prohibits"
    – k_g
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 0:31
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    @k_g, the actual situation is more complicated than that. It means that, for example, if Bush and Cheney were both from Texas, most Republican electors would vote Bush/Cheney, but any Texas electors would need to vote Bush/Someone Else or Someone Else/Cheney.
    – Mark
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 0:36
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    @k_g, in the event of a closely-divided electoral college, it could change the procedures (no VP candidate has a majority, so the Senate has to make a pro-forma choice of the President-Elect's VP), but (hopefully) not the outcome.
    – Mark
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 0:43
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    It could make a difference if 'the other' party held the Senate.
    – ChrisW
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 0:59
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    it's not even required that the President and VP are from the same party, and historically this wasn't always the case (especially early on, when often the person losing the election for president was elected VP).
    – jwenting
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 6:18

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