Article II · Section 1 of 4
The President and how they are chosen
Article II: The President
The one-line version
The President's four-year term, how electors choose the President, who can serve, and the oath.
Section 1 in plain English
The executive power, meaning the power to carry out the laws, belongs to the President. The President serves a four-year term. The Vice President is elected for the same term.
Note: The Twenty-Second Amendment (1951) limits a person to being elected President twice.
Each state chooses presidential electors in the way its legislature decides. A state gets as many electors as it has senators and representatives combined. Members of Congress and federal officials cannot be electors.
The original text had each elector vote for two people. The top vote-getter with a majority became President, and the runner-up became Vice President. If no one had a majority, the House chose the President, with each state delegation getting one vote.
Note: The Twelfth Amendment (1804) replaced this system. Electors now cast separate votes for President and Vice President.
Congress sets the day electors are chosen and the day they vote. The voting day is the same across the country.
To be President, a person must be a natural-born U.S. citizen. The text also allowed people who were citizens when the Constitution was adopted. They must be at least 35 years old. They must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.
If the President dies, resigns, is removed, or cannot do the job, the Vice President takes over. Congress can pass a law saying who acts as President if both offices are empty.
Note: The Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1967) added detailed rules for when the President cannot do the job and for filling a Vice President vacancy.
The President is paid a salary that cannot go up or down during the term. The President cannot get any other pay from the federal government or any state.
Before taking office, the President takes this oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Original text, 1788
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. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. 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. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."