What happens if us election is a tie

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With many simulations being run about how states could swing in this election, people have noticed that the possibility of a to Electoral College tie is real. If there is a tie on election night, there is still a possibility that the vote could change.

An Electoral College member could flip the other way and vote for the other candidate. If this were to happen, it would be on December 14th, when the Electoral College meets to cast their votes. A faithless elector is not uncommon. In the history of the United States, there have been a total of instances of faithlessness as of today.

The largest event was in the year when Horace Greeley died after Election Day but before the Electoral College convened. Nearly all have voted for third party candidates or non-candidates instead of switching their support to a major opposing candidate.

So a faithless elector votes at the Electoral College different from the party assignment. Let us go back in history to the election. This caused Johnson to fall one electoral vote short of a majority. As a result, the vice-presidential election was in the U. Senate for the only time in American history. The U. Senate ultimately elected Johnson as vice president. This vote was conducted along the party lines. The United States Constitution does not specify a notion of pledging.

Similarly, in , Democratic elector W. In , Oklahoma Republican elector Henry D. Irwin cast his ballot for Sen. Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, who was otherwise not a candidate, to protest his dislike of Richard Nixon. In , Roger MacBride, a Virginia elector, cast his Republican ballot for the Libertarian candidate John Hospers, apparently in protest of the economic policies of the Nixon Administration.

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.