Tom Holland recounts how a mistake by a Democratic-Republican elector left Jefferson and running mate Aaron Burr tied at 73 votes each, throwing the contest to the House of Representatives, where it took 36 ballots to resolve. ✦ AI generated
Tom Holland · The Rest Is History · 2026-07-09 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 19:07
But four years before he guns down Alexander Hamilton, he very nearly guns down the presidential hopes of Thomas Jefferson. And this is because when the votes from the electoral college are formally delivered on the 11th of February 1801, there's an absolute disaster for Jefferson's handlers because Jefferson and Burr turn out to have the same number. So it's a tie. And this was not meant to happen.
verbatim transcript · starts at 19:07
19:07meant to happen. >> Yeah. Because basically they've got they've elected the electoral college and one of the people in the electoral college, one of the Democratic Republican electors was meant to have cast his his vote for Jefferson but not for Burr and forgets. Yeah. He basically No one really knows exactly why this happened, but Jefferson and Burr end up with the same number of votes 7373 instead of 7372 which was the plan. So,
19:31it's not clear which one of them is going to be president. And as we said last time, if Burr had been almost anybody else but himself, he would have stepped aside and said, "Well, obviously there's been a something's gone wrong." And Jefferson's meant to be president. That's fine. Instead, Burr being Burr, he's like, "Brilliant." [laughter] >> Yeah, >> I can be president now. >> Well, he said he says of it, I've gone,
19:53you know, he's gone into politics for fun and honor and profit, which is very upfront. >> Yeah. >> So, he's not going to lay down. And so the election goes to the House of Representatives. Um, and there are now 16 states, so three new states. And each of those have an individual vote. And there is massive scope for kind of anti-Jifferson mischief here. People can see that Burr
20:15is not ideal presidential um material. But at the same time, it is precisely the fact that Jefferson is so obviously brilliant and such a a kind of incredibly effective political operator, which means that that Hamilton and Adams and the Federalists, you know, they don't want anything to do with him. And so, um, the Federalists vote against Jefferson and in favor of Burr again and again and again. And these votes are
20:43being held in the capital in Washington. And there are snowstorms raging outside. People have to be kind of brought in on stretchers. Um it's incredible drama. And day after day the ballots are tied. The day slip by. There's no result. And then finally on the 16th of February there have been 35 tied ballots. At last the deadlock is broken. And it's broken spectacularly. Jefferson wins the 36th