How did the rise of political parties change electoral college functions?

Answer 1

The Framers considered many methods for selecting a President. At first, many delegates favored the idea of Congress choosing the President. Those against this plan argued that the choice of President should be controlled by the people, not the legislature.

Answer 2

The designers of the Constitution figured that most presidents would be elected by the House of Representatives with the rare exceptions of extremely popular candidates. That probably would have been the case without political parties. The processes of primary elections and caucuses narrows the field of candidates enough to make it likely that one will receive votes from more than half of the electors.

Answer 3

The emergence of political parties and nationally coordinated election campaigns complicated matters in the elections of 1796 and 1800. According to the prevailing rules of electoral college voting at that time, electors cast votes for two persons. Electors could not distinguish between their presidential and vice-presidential choices. The recipient of the most electoral votes would become president and the runner-up vice-president. The United States presidential election of 1796 was the first contested American presidential election and the only one to elect a President and Vice President from opposing tickets. Although John Adams won, Thomas Jefferson received more electoral votes than John Adams' vice-presidential running mate Thomas Pinckney and Jefferson was elected Vice-President.

Responding to the problems from those elections, the Congress proposed the Twelfth Amendment in 1803 - prescribing electors cast separate ballots for president and vice president - to replace the system outlined in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3. By June 1804, the states had ratified the amendment in time for the 1804 election.