List of tie-breaking votes cast by Vice Presidents of the United States

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The Vice President of the United States is the ex officio President of the United States Senate, as provided in Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the United States Constitution:

The tie-breaking vote (or casting vote) has been made 244 times by 35 different Vice Presidents.[1]

Historical significance

The first President of the Senate, John Adams, cast twenty-nine tie-breaking votes—a record none of his successors has matched. His votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, and prevented war with Great Britain. On at least one occasion he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams's political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint in the hope of realizing the goal shared by many of his successors: election in his own right as president of the United States.[2]

In 2001, during the 107th Congress, the Senate was divided 50–50 between Republicans and Democrats and thus Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority. Interestingly, however, because the 107th Congress was sworn in on January 3, while the president and vice president were not sworn in until the 20th, Democrats technically held a 51–50 majority in the Senate for the 17 days while Al Gore was still Vice President. However, no substantive legislative work was done in this time.

In recent years, with the rise in use of the filibuster in the United States Senate, the Vice President's tie-breaking vote has become less important, because close votes on important issues will, with few exceptions, almost certainly be filibustered, preventing a tied vote from taking place. Three fifths of the votes—far higher than the half from a tie—is needed to end a filibuster.

List of Presidents of the Senate by number of tie-breaking votes

There have been 244 tie-breaking votes cast by 35 Presidents of the Senate while 12 Presidents of the Senate did not cast tie-breaking votes. The median and mean numbers of tie-breaking votes cast per Senate President are 3 and 5.19 respectively.

Rank by
# of Tie-
breaking
votes		 # of Tie-
breaking
votes		 President of the Senate Party Order in
Office		 Term of Office President(s)
1 29 John Adams Federalist 1 Apr 21, 1789 – Mar 4, 1797 George Washington
2 28 John Calhoun Democratic-Republican 7 Mar 4, 1825 – Dec 28, 1832 J. Q. Adams / Andrew Jackson
3 19 George Dallas Democratic 11 Mar 4, 1845 – Mar 4, 1849 James K. Polk
4 17 Richard Johnson Democratic 9 Mar 4, 1837 – Mar 4, 1841 Martin Van Buren
4 17 Schuyler Colfax Republican 17 Mar 4, 1869 – Mar 4, 1873 Ulysses S. Grant
6 12 George Clinton Democratic-Republican 4 Mar 4, 1805 – Apr 20, 1812 Thomas Jefferson / James Madison
7 9 John Breckinridge Democratic 14 Mar 4, 1857 – Mar 4, 1861 James Buchanan
8 8 Thomas Marshall Democratic 28 Mar 4, 1913 – Mar 4, 1921 Woodrow Wilson
8 8 Alben Barkley Democratic 35 Jan 20, 1949 – Jan 20, 1953 Harry S. Truman
8 8 Richard Nixon Republican 36 Jan 20, 1953 – Jan 20, 1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower
8 8 Dick Cheney Republican 46 Jan 20, 2001 – Jan 20, 2009 George W. Bush
12 7 Hannibal Hamlin Republican 15 Mar 4, 1861 – Mar 4, 1865 Abraham Lincoln
12 7 George H. W. Bush Republican 43 Jan 20, 1981 – Jan 20, 1989 Ronald Reagan
14 6 Elbridge Gerry Democratic-Republican 5 Mar 4, 1813 – Nov 23, 1814 James Madison
14 6 William Wheeler Republican 19 Mar 4, 1877 – Mar 4, 1881 Rutherford B. Hayes
16 4 Martin Van Buren Democratic 8 Mar 4, 1833 – Mar 4, 1837 Andrew Jackson
16 4 Levi Morton Republican 22 Mar 4, 1889 – Mar 4, 1893 Benjamin Harrison
16 4 James Sherman Republican 27 Mar 4, 1909 – Oct 30, 1912 William Howard Taft
16 4 Henry Wallace Democratic 33 Jan 20, 1941 – Jan 20, 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt
16 4 Hubert Humphrey Democratic 38 Jan 20, 1965 – Jan 20, 1969 Lyndon Johnson
16 4 Al Gore Democratic 45 Jan 20, 1993 – Jan 20, 2001 Bill Clinton
22 3 Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican 2 Mar 4, 1797 – Mar 4, 1801 John Adams
22 3 Aaron Burr Democratic-Republican 3 Mar 4, 1801 – Mar 4, 1805 Thomas Jefferson
22 3 Daniel Tompkins Democratic-Republican 6 Mar 4, 1817 – Mar 4, 1825 James Monroe
22 3 Millard Fillmore Whig 12 Mar 4, 1849 – Jul 9, 1850 Zachary Taylor
22 3 Chester Arthur Republican 20 Mar 4, 1881 – Sep 19, 1881 James Garfield
22 3 Charles Curtis Republican 31 Mar 4, 1929 – Mar 4, 1933 Herbert Hoover
22 3 John Garner Democratic 32 Mar 4, 1933 – Jan 20, 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt
29 2 Adlai Stevenson Democratic 23 Mar 4, 1893 – Mar 4, 1897 Grover Cleveland
29 2 Charles Dawes Republican 30 Mar 4, 1925 – Mar 4, 1929 Calvin Coolidge
29 2 Spiro Agnew Republican 39 Jan 20, 1969 – Oct 10, 1973 Richard Nixon
32 1 Henry Wilson Republican 18 Mar 4, 1873 – Nov 22, 1875 Ulysses S. Grant
32 1 Garret Hobart Republican 24 Mar 4, 1897 – Nov 21, 1899 William McKinley
32 1 Harry Truman Democratic 34 Jan 20, 1945 – Apr 12, 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt
32 1 Walter Mondale Democratic 42 Jan 20, 1977 – Jan 20, 1981 Jimmy Carter
36 0 John Tyler Whig 10 Mar 4, 1841 – Apr 4, 1841 William Henry Harrison
36 0 William King Democratic 13 Mar 4, 1853 – Apr 18, 1853 Franklin Pierce
36 0 Andrew Johnson Democratic 16 Mar 4, 1865 – Apr 15, 1865 Abraham Lincoln
36 0 Thomas Hendricks Democratic 21 Mar 4, 1885 – Nov 25, 1885 Grover Cleveland
36 0 Theodore Roosevelt Republican 25 Mar 4, 1901 – Sep 14, 1901 William McKinley
36 0 Charles Fairbanks Republican 26 Mar 4, 1905 – Mar 4, 1909 Theodore Roosevelt
36 0 Calvin Coolidge Republican 29 Mar 4, 1921 – Aug 2, 1923 Warren G. Harding
36 0 Lyndon Johnson Democratic 37 Jan 20, 1961 – Nov 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy
36 0 Gerald Ford Republican 40 Dec 6, 1973 – Aug 9, 1974 Richard Nixon
36 0 Nelson Rockefeller Republican 41 Dec 19, 1974 – Jan 20, 1977 Gerald Ford
36 0 Dan Quayle Republican 44 Jan 20, 1989 – Jan 20, 1993 George H. W. Bush
36 0 Joe Biden Democratic 47 Jan 20, 2009 – present Barack Obama

References

  1. ↑ "Senate.gov: VPTies.pdf" (PDF).<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  2. ↑ "Senate.gov: John Adams, 1st Vice President (1789-1797)".<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>

External links

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