I knew it could be possible but I didn't know there are 64 possible combinations according to this.64 combinations! More than you'd think. Thanks for posting the explanation of what happens if neither candidate can come up with an electoral majority. I knew Republicans would be likely to win this year if that happens, but didn't know how it works.
The newly-elected U.S House of Representatives would choose the president from among the top three electoral vote-getters. If Biden and Trump were the only two to receive votes, the choice would be between just those two candidates. In the 1824 election, the last time the House voted for president, the House chose among Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William Crawford (the sitting treasury secretary). Presidential candidate Henry Clay, the speaker of the House, finished fourth and thus didn’t make the top-three cut. He helped Adams win the House vote, and Adams made Clay secretary of state. The resentment over what Jackson and his supporters called a “corrupt bargain” fueled Jackson’s victory over Adams in 1828.
At first blush, a House tiebreaker would seem to favor Biden and the Democrats, who currently hold a House majority and are likely to keep it even in the event of a presidential vote close enough to produce this hypothetical tied scenario. However, even if they are still in the House minority, Republicans likely would be able to win the tiebreaker vote. That’s because each state House delegation gets a single vote, with majority support — 26 out of 50 — required for the House to elect a president. The Senate elects the vice president, with each member getting a single vote. (The District of Columbia has three electoral votes but no voting representation in the House and the Senate, so it has no vote in this process.)
Presumably, whichever party holds a majority in a state U.S. House delegation would determine how to cast that state’s vote. In some states with single members, such as Vermont and Wyoming, it would be up to that single member which way to vote. Some states might split — for instance, swing state Pennsylvania currently has nine Democratic U.S. House representatives and nine Republicans. It is possible that a tied state would deadlock and not cast a vote.
Still, Republicans currently hold a bare majority of U.S. House delegations, and we continue to favor them to keep that edge.
In other words, if the election is close enough to produce a 269-269 Electoral College tie, Republicans likely will retain their advantage in the tiebreaker vote.
So there is good news after all.[/LEFT]
Originally Posted by HedonistForever