Associate Dean Amar Authors Election Op-ed in the L.A. Times

Associate Dean Vikram Amar wrote an Op-ed examining the way America elects vice presidents published in the Los Angeles Times on October 22.  The article, entitled "Ready to Split the Ticket?," questions the desirability of the current system, which requires voters to elect a vice president as part of a unified president/vice president party ticket rather than vote directly for a vice presidential candidate. 

Associate Dean Amar points out that nothing in the U.S. Constitution or federal law requires that voters be denied the opportunity to vote for presidential and vice presidential candidates of different parties, and that the current system is simply the result of the historical evolution of election regulations set by individual states.  Offering voters the opportunity to vote directly for vice presidential candidates probably would not result in many split executives elected, but "would inject more competition into the vice presidential stakes, and that might improve the quality of vice presidential picks," he concluded.

Vikram Amar, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law with the UC Davis School of Law, is a national authority in the fields of constitutional law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and remedies. His biweekly column for FindLaw.com, the leading provider of online legal information, centers on his expertise in constitutional law.