What would happen if the US elections ended in a tie?trending news

 To win the election tomorrow, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are battling to the very last vote. However, there is a slim chance that the US vote may conclude in a tie. The US Electoral College, a winner-take-all system that chooses which presidential contender advances to the White House, is the subject of this discussion.

Suppose there is a tie!
There are 538 votes in the Electoral College, which are split among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in different ratios. Therefore, it is theoretically feasible for two presidential contenders to tie.

A total tie would occur if Harris and Trump each received 269 electoral votes, meaning no candidate could obtain the majority of votes needed to win the presidency.

In US history, such impasses have happened twice: in 1800 and 1824.

In the 1800 election, incumbent Federalist President John Adams lost to Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans.

Like today's vice presidential candidates, presidential contenders back then had a "running mate" from a separate state.

But because of poor coordination, the Democratic-Republicans' presidential nominee, Jefferson, received the same number of votes as their vice presidential candidate, Aaron Burr. Sanford Levinson, a professor at the University of Texas Law School, has pointed out that during a protracted impasse that almost led to a military conflict, the House of Representatives used a one-state, one-vote procedure to settle the election.

This led to the introduction of the 12th Amendment, which continues to govern the US presidential election. It makes it clear that voters "shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President," in order to prevent any potential ties between party candidates.

There is still a chance, though, that no candidate will be selected with a majority of the electors—270 is now the critical criterion.

In 1824, Andrew Jackson won 99 votes, followed by John Quincy Adams with 84, William Crawford with 41, and Henry Clay with 37. CNN pointed out that all of these candidates belonged to the same Democratic-Republican political party, which was divided into regional groups.

According to the 12th Amendment, under these situations, the House of Representatives will promptly select the president by ballot from the top three electors' selections. Each state has one vote, and a simple majority is needed to cast a ballot.

This implies that California, which has almost 40 million citizens, would have the same influence in selecting a new president as Wyoming, the smallest state in the US with less than 600,000 inhabitants (despite the fact that California appoints 54 electors and Wyoming only three).

Furthermore, the House of Representatives' makeup, which will be decided upon concurrently with the presidential elections, might influence the selection of the next president.