Posted on 09/10/2020 12:06:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the event that neither President Donald Trump nor Joe Biden wins an absolute majority of votes in the Electoral College this November, the race will be handled with a constitutional procedure called a contingent election, which will send the contest to the House of Representatives for a final decision.
The process for a contingent election was initially established in Article II of the Constitution and later modified by the Twelfth Amendment. As it stands, the Constitution requires the House of Representatives to go into session to settle the election if neither candidate has attained a majority. Under this procedure, the House then must choose among the three presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes.
What’s most important to note is that in a contingent election, the House doesn’t cast its votes in the same way that it would decide on legislation. Instead, each state delegation must cast its vote en bloc, with each state receiving just a single vote, allotted to the candidate who receives majority support in the delegation. In order to be elected, then, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of state-delegation votes, which, given the 50 U.S. states, means he must receive the votes of 26 state delegations. (Despite having a delegate and three votes in the Electoral College, the District of Columbia does not get a vote.)
This is where things get really interesting: Although the Democratic Party currently holds a majority in the House, with 232 representatives to the Republican Party’s 198, the Republicans hold a majority of state delegations. In the current makeup of the House, there is a Republican majority in the delegations from 27 states. Of course, the composition of those delegations is subject to change in the coming election, and the newly elected House would be the one to settle the presidential election in the event of a tie.
A contingent election for vice president, meanwhile, in which no vice-presidential candidate achieves a majority in the Electoral College, would be settled by the Senate.
In 1800, the U.S. faced one of its few contingent elections, when Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each won 73 electoral votes, John Adams won 65 electoral votes, and Charles Pinckney won 64 electoral votes. This was when the Constitution required each Electoral College member to vote for two candidates for president and none for vice president; the second-place finisher became the vice president. Burr was understood to be Jefferson’s vice-presidential choice, and several people suggested that some Jefferson elector should cast his second vote for someone else, so that Burr would finish second, but nobody did.
When the state delegations of the House attempted to choose between Jefferson and Burr, it took 36 ballots for them to elect Jefferson. The first 35 ballots failed to achieve a majority, in part because House rules label as “divided” any delegation that doesn’t give a majority to either candidate, resulting in its vote being withheld from both candidates. Each time the votes were counted, Jefferson got eight states’ votes, Burr got six, and two states were divided. Finally, on the 36th ballots, a handful of representatives from the opposition Federalist Party relented and changed their votes, and Jefferson was elected.
In past contingent presidential elections, the House has held its votes in a closed session and the votes of each representative were never made public. However, a closed session is not required by the Constitution, and the House could decide to change that rule and publicize the final tally of votes.
Contingent elections are rare, with only three occurring in the U.S. since the founding: in the House in 1800 and 1824, and one in the Senate to choose the vice president in 1836. Even so, it’s not entirely unimaginable, especially given the state of play in several battleground states, that this year’s presidential contest could end up in the House come November.
In addition to that possibility, there’s a chance that the House will have to vote to resolve disputes over the certification of electoral votes. Because there is certain to be an increase in mail-in ballots this year, along with a higher likelihood of court challenges, close final-vote tallies in some states could result in protracted delays or disagreements over validity of the results.
The newly elected House and Senate are always required to certify the Electoral College in the January after a presidential election, giving congressmen the chance to challenge the results. If any congressman does so, it would trigger a vote in each chamber on whether to certify the electoral votes in the disputed state or states. Unlike in a contingent election, those votes would be conducted on an individual basis rather than by state delegation, a prospect that Americans of all political parties should hope to avoid.
Apparently, there are more states than just Arizona which will vote for Trump but have a majority Democrats in their House delegations.
On the upside, we know for 100 percent certainty that no House Republican would vote against Trump in such a situation.
The new House is sworn in first working day in January. The POTUS isn’t sworn in until the 20th.................
I dunno. Will they have to attend the junior college? /dumb democrat impression.
Awesome. Please, Lord, let the Democrats be wiped out. In Jesus' name, amen.
Not to argue but I thought it was the currently seated House that casts the votes, not the incoming class which isn't sworn in until early January iirc.
democrats are deliberately doing things now so that the election will be sent to the house of representatives. That is their strategy. They will sue and contest everything. They will make it chaos on election night.
We know what the house will do. The same vicious savages who voted for impeachment will be in charge. That is their plan.
Concurrent with that, will be the riots which they are going to keep going until after the election. The sight of cities burning, and an uncertain outcome of the election, will have the public clamoring for a resolution.
Because it's DC he won't have to invokes the Insurrection Act.
Hah! Beautiful! Thank you for posting this.
The Electors are chosen by the State Legislatures. There is no such thing as a "Presidential race" in the Constitution, and it is completely unnecessary for the appointment of Electors.
There is no "voting for President" in the US Constitution. Voting is not necessary for the appointment of Electors.
Most likely.
Amendment XX
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
The new Congress counts the electoral votes, not the old one.
When the new Congress convenes, its first task (I believe in joint session) is to count the electoral votes.
The electors meet in December (December 16 this year, I believe) in their state capitals. They vote. The votes are certified by the state and then sent to Congress.
When the new Congress convenes, it counts those electoral votes and announces the results.
Well, my point is, they could keep counting (and manufacturing votes via mail-in ballots and doing Fraudulent ballot harvesting) for months!
“The sight of cities burning, and an uncertain outcome of the election, will have the public clamoring for a resolution.”
The sight of cities burning, and an uncertain outcome of the election, will have the public shooting and hanging rioters by the thousands.
There are statutory deadlines in 3 USC, Chapter 1.
Counting electoral ballots starts on Jan 6. (3 USC 15)
Sttes can confuse the process by seldning more than one slate of ballots. I expect DEM states to do this, send DEM electoral ballots even if Trump wins the state, based on "popular vote" or some other rationale.
There is 2 hour time limit for debate (3 USC 17), but that doesn't resolve a situation when the vote is tied.
I think the reality is that the US is no longer a regime of orderly transfer of power. We literally are a banana republic.
“In the current makeup of the House...”
I may be wrong, but isn’t a contingent election in the House based upon the incoming House of Representatives, not the outgoing?
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