Electing presidents the way the Founding Fathers expected us to
In the history of the United States, the 1824 presidential election is generally considered one of the weirdest presidential elections ever. This election was won by John Quincy Adams. The basic story of what happened is that Adams placed second in the Electoral College, while Andrew Jackson placed first.
However, since electoral votes were divided between four different candidates, Jackson didn’t have a majority. This meant that there needed to be a House contingent election between the top three candidates — Jackson, Adams, and William Crawford.
The fourth place candidate, Henry Clay, was excluded from this election. However, as Speaker of the House, he was highly influential, and he put his support behind Adams in the election.
The election of 1824 was unusual both in terms of party politics and electoral mechanics… but it was also the election that was closest to what the Founding Fathers thought would be normal when they designed and approved the presidential election system.
