Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
id argue that the electoral college is a system to elect executives, and the role of president of the senate is the chief executive of the senate. plus the rules for electing the vp are in article 2, not to mention again that article 2 does give the legislature powers as well.
but yeah, the article 1 part of bidens comments are wrong. i think he might have said the argument for the vp being part of legislature and then tried to refute it, but if so did not do a very good job
and that's a modern way of looking at it. . .the original intent and the historical role of the vp has been legislative in nature, with very little to do otherwise.
i'm sure you would expect this, but i'd read the role of the senate in article 2 as limiting the power of the president, not expanding the role of the legislature, since that, again, could intrude on the separation of powers. plus, in order to convince wavering colonies that the constitution wasn't setting up a would-be king, there is by necessity several limiting powers clauses in article 2.
as for the election text, you're right, it details the election of the president and the vp. but again, the vp is relegated to less-than-top billing and is there because the framers didn't want the vp to already be in the senate- in other words, the senate couldn't just declare one of their own to be vp and keep their senate seat at the same time; rather, some means needed to be devised to elect a president of the senate, and it was given to the vp. . .so, yes, while the electoral college governs the election of the president and vp, article 1 states the role and duties of the vp as president of the senate, whereas article 2 focuses almost solely on the duties of the president.
