Do I use a comma when there are two items/people listed? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Commas are not needed here. Typically a comma is only used before a coordinating conjunction (and, or, but, nor, etc) when it either links two independent clauses e.g

I went to the shops, and she went to the market.

or when it appears in a list as an Oxford comma e.g

We went to the bars with the strippers, JFK, and Stalin.

When writing at a sentence like this you should remove the negation and see if a comma seems correct with "and".

The schools allows the president and the vice president to vote in the election.

It is clear that this sentence is valid without the use of commas. Consequently, so is yours. All your commas achieve is making it seem as if "or the vice president" is a non-essential phrase that's being shoehorned into the middle of the sentence. You've done this validly because the sentence is still complete without the phrase "or the vice president". If you want to suggest to your readers that the fact that the vice president isn't permitted to vote in elections is merely an additional piece of information and not so directly relevant then go ahead and keep the commas. However, I'd be inclined to think it unnecessary in this context.