One copy must be delivered by a
messenger to the president of the Senate at the federal capital before
the first Wednesday in January; the second is sent to the same officer
through the mail; the third is to be deposited with the federal judge of
the district in which the electors meet. If by the first Wednesday in
January the certificate has not been received at the federal capital,
the secretary of state is to send a messenger to the district judge and
obtain the copy deposited with him. The interval of a month was allowed
to get the returns in, for those were not the days of railroad and
telegraph. The messengers were allowed twenty-five cents a mile, and
were subject to a fine of a thousand dollars for neglect of duty. On the
second Wednesday in February, Congress is required to be in session, and
the votes received are counted and the result declared.[12]
[Footnote 12: See note on p. 278.]
[Sidenote: The twelfth amendment (1804).]
At first the electoral votes did not state whether the candidates named
in them were candidates for the presidency or for the vice-presidency.
Each elector simply wrote down two names, only one of which could be the
name of a citizen of his own state.
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