<P> Partisans on both sides sought any advantage they could find . In several states, this included changing the process of selecting electors to ensure the desired result . In Georgia, Democratic - Republican legislators replaced the popular vote with selection by the state legislature . Federalist legislators did the same in Massachusetts and New Hampshire . This may have had some unintended consequences in Massachusetts, where the makeup of the delegation to the House of Representatives changed from 12 Federalists and 2 Democratic - Republicans to 8 Federalists and 6 Democratic - Republicans, perhaps the result of backlash on the part of the electorate . Pennsylvania also switched to legislative choice, but this resulted in an almost evenly split set of electors . Virginia switched from electoral districts to winner - take - all, a move that probably switched one or two votes out of the Federalist column . </P> <P> Because each state could choose its own election day in 1800, voting lasted from April to October . In April, Burr's successful mobilization of the vote in New York City succeeded in reversing the Federalist majority in the state legislature to provide decisive support for the Democratic - Republican ticket . With the two parties tied 63--63 in the Electoral College in the autumn of 1800, the last state to vote, South Carolina, chose eight Democratic - Republicans to award the election to Jefferson and Burr . </P> <P> Under the United States Constitution as it then stood, each elector cast two votes, and the candidate with a majority of the votes was elected president, with the vice presidency going to the runner - up . The Federalists therefore arranged for one of their electors to vote for John Jay rather than for Pinckney . The Democratic - Republicans had a similar plan to have one of their electors cast a vote for another candidate instead of Burr, but failed to execute it, thus all of the Democratic - Republican electors cast their votes for both Jefferson and Burr, 73 in all for each of them . According to a provision of the United States Constitution, a tie in a case of this type had to be resolved by the House of Representatives, with each state casting one vote . Although the congressional election of 1800 turned over majority control of the House of Representatives to the Democratic - Republicans by 65 seats to 35, the presidential election had to be decided by the outgoing House that had been elected in the congressional election of 1798 (at that time, the new presidential and congressional terms all started on March 4 of the year after a national election). In the outgoing House, the Federalists retained a majority of 90 seats to 54 . </P> <P> When the electoral ballots were opened and counted on February 11, 1801, it turned out that the certificate of election from Georgia was defective . While it was clear that the electors had cast their votes for Jefferson and Burr, the certificate did not take the constitutionally mandated form of a "List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each". Vice President Jefferson, who was counting the votes in his role as President of the Senate, immediately counted the votes from Georgia as votes for Jefferson and Burr . No objections were raised . If the disputed Georgia ballots were rejected on these technicalities, Jefferson and Burr would have lost 4 electoral votes, leaving them with 69 electoral votes each . The counting of the votes would have failed to result in a majority of 70 votes for any of the four candidates, causing a constitutionally mandated Congressional runoff among the top five finishers . Instead, the total number of votes for Jefferson and Burr was 73, a majority of the total, but a tie between them . </P>

Who broke the tie in the election of 1800