How many times has a Senate vote resulted in a tie?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
In total, according to the visual above, how many times has a Senate vote resulted in a tie?
According to Article I, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution who breaks a Senate vote tie?
As such, who is the only person who is a member of two branches of government: executive and legislative?
When he was vice president, Joe Biden never broke a single tie. What VEEP (vice president) has broken the most Senate ties?
Vice President Kamala Harris broke the centuries-old record on Tuesday for the most tiebreaking votes cast by a vice president in the Senate, underscoring Democrats’ tenuous hold on the majority and the deep polarization gripping Congress. It was the latest bit of history to be made by Ms. Harris, a former senator from California and the first woman, African American and Asian American to serve as vice president. She cast her 32nd tiebreaking vote on Tuesday, beating the previous record of 31 set nearly 200 years ago by John C. Calhoun, who was vice president from 1825 to 1832. What does the fact that Harris has broken so many ties say about the power of the Democratic party in the Senate?
Pick your favorite of the following famous quotes about the weakness of the office of the vice president:
"You're not going to take it, are you?" — Grace Coolidge to her husband, Calvin, after he was nominated for vice president in 1920.
"I suppose I'll have to." — Calvin Coolidge's reply. He became president upon Warren Harding's death in 1923.
"I do not propose to be buried until I am dead." — Daniel Webster, turning down the vice presidency in 1839.
Being vice president is comparable to "a man in a cataleptic fit; he cannot speak; he cannot move; he suffers no pain; he is perfectly conscious of all that goes on, but has no part in it." — Thomas R. Marshall, vice president under Woodrow Wilson.
"I am vice president. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything." — John Adams, elected vice president 1788 and 1792.
"I would a great deal rather be anything, say professor of history, than vice president." — Theodore Roosevelt, before becoming William McKinley's vice president and succeeding to the presidency upon McKinley's assassination in 1901.
"The chief embarrassment in discussing the office is that in explaining how little there is to say about it one has evidently said all there is to say." — Woodrow Wilson, when he was a professor.
"I go to funerals. I go to earthquakes." — Nelson Rockefeller, who was frustrated in the vice presidency. He was appointed after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 and Vice President Gerald R. Ford became president.
The Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the authority to remove the vice president of the United States from office in two separate proceedings. The first one takes place in the House of Representatives, which impeaches the vice president by approving articles of impeachment through a simple majority vote. If a vice-president voted against the will of the president on a tie breaker, could the president fire the vice president?
Although there have been Senate ties throughout American history, the number of tie breakers has increased in the past few decades. Explain the connection between political polarization, divided government, and the number of tie breakers.
If there is a tie in the U.S. House of Representatives the motion fails. Why is a tie in the House unlikely?
With slim margins of control in Congress and a substantial domestic agenda, Mr. Biden has relied on Ms. Harris for the decisive votes to advance major legislation including his sweeping pandemic aid plan and his expansive health, climate and tax law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Five of her tiebreakers advanced the confirmation of federal judges. Make a claim about whether the vice-presidency is a weak office.
Learning Extension
Read the entire history of vice-presidential ties aloud to your date this weekend. Just saying!
Visual Extension
Action Extension
Tweet the Veep and let her know what you think about the job she’s doing.
Get Creative
15 of the 49 vice presidents have gone on to become president. Imagine that Kamala Harris became president (she’s got about a 1/3 chance). Describe a Harris Presidency.
