We posted yesterday about the US Electoral College and how it works – but what happens if there is a tie in electoral votes?
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution has a contingency plan for tie elections: “[I]f there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by Ballot one of them for President.”
If the choice is directed to the new House of Representatives, each state casts one ballot to pick a winner from among the two tied candidates. This has only happened once in American history--in the 1800 U.S. presidential election. Demonstrating the imperfection of the system--it took 36 consecutive tie votes in the new House before Thomas Jefferson was picked to be President on February 17, 1801.
Read full article here
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