Gore which effectively awarded the presidential election to George W. Except for the example of Samuel Myles back in , none of the other elections shed much light on what might happen to break a deadlock in Of course, an elector that decided to vote for someone other than Romney or Obama would not change the outcome.
For example, if a Republican elector from Florida decided to cast his vote for Mario Rubio, rather than Romney, Obama would have one more electoral vote than Romney, but he would still lack a majority of the votes, so the election would still go to the House of Representatives, which could now choose between Obama, Romney, and Rubio. What, if anything, might prompt an Obama or Romney elector in to switch his or her vote to the other candidate?
One possibility is that an elector might feel that the candidate who received the largest percentage of the popular vote should be president, especially if the gap between the two candidates was more than one or two percentage points.
Another possibility is that some sort of backdoor political deal might be arranged so that an individual elector or his or her state might benefit by the vote switch, although this would have to be done quite delicately in order to avoid a public relations disaster of the first order.
Americans would not take kindly to the idea that the presidency had been purchased. Is any of this likely to happen in ? Probably not, but in less than a week we will know for sure. Great post! I imagine that nothing would stop Paul Ryan assuming he defeats Zerban from casting a vote for Romney in the House? Thanks for the kind comments. The Federalist representatives who withdrew from the balloting were influenced by Alexander Hamilton, who was ideologically opposed to Jefferson but detested Aaron Burr on a personal level.
Of course, this began a series of events that culminated in Burr killing Hamilton in a duel in April , while Burr was still Vice-President. Tom — yes, Paul Ryan would be able to cast a vote as he was not required to abstain for running for re-election to Congress while running for VP. As to if there was a tie in the House? This way, if the House is hopelessly deadlocked with a tie or, there were three candidates, no candidate gets a simple majority of the State delegations, the Senate will be able to select a VP who would then serve as President.
Now, if the Senate tied on the question of VP, the tie-breaking vote would be cast by the sitting VP. Under the 25th Amendment, if a VP leaves office for whatever reason, the President nominates and both houses of Congress approve by a simple majority.
Who becomes President? According to the Presidential Succession Act of , the Speaker of the House, but only if he or she resigns from Congress. If not, then it passes to the President pro tempore in the Senate, but only if he or she resigns from the Senate. If not, then it goes to the Secretary of State. It is an anti-democratic institution that has long outlived whatever usefulness it may have ever had.
It perversely gives small states far more power than they deserve. We went to the direct election of US Senators about years ago. I suggest a second Constitutional Convention as the vehicle for doing it.
This was very helpful. May I ask, I believe in the election the House of Representatives had to vote for the top three candidates that had run. Is that the case still, or may they now vote for anyone? Is this still valid today? Since its congressional delegation is tied now, if Democrats hold their seats and win only one congressional seat they will control the delegation.
But recent polling suggests a neck and neck race. Next is Florida where the Republicans have a one-seat advantage over the Democrats. If one seat switches from Republican to Democrat, control of the Florida delegation moves to Democrats. Democrats have to hold all the seats they have and pick up one seat. But Cohn is running slightly behind Franklin and within the margin of error. If de Pasquale and Cohn manage to win their races and Democrats hold what they already have , Democrats will control 25 delegations and Republicans will control 25 delegations.
What if the tied Electoral College race results in a tied race in the House of Representatives? The House keeps voting until someone gets 26 votes. A Biden landslide or a clear win by Trump reduce the possibilities that the election will go into the House.
In the 21 st century we have had two elections where the winner of the popular vote did not become president because of the Electoral College. Discover Membership. Editions Quartz. More from Quartz About Quartz.
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