With the 2024 presidential election just days away, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are hot on their campaign trails in the battle to win the Electoral College vote.
Though it’s not something to lose sleep over yet, there’s a remote possibility in a race this tight that neither candidate gets the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency. It’s not how the Electoral College was intended to work, but it is a scenario that’s accounted for in the Twelfth Amendment.
In case you need a refresher, the president of the United States is not elected by the national “popular vote,” which is the total number of votes a candidate received. Presidents are instead installed by the Electoral College, a group of electors from each state — equal to the state’s number of representatives and senators in Congress — who formally vote for one candidate.
In total, 538 electors — which equals the 435 representatives, 100 senators and three electors given to the District of Columbia — are responsible for choosing the country’s next president and vice president.
Forty-eight out of the 50 States award electoral votes on a winner-takes-all basis (as does the District of Columbia). For example, all 19 of Pennsylvania’s electors will back the candidate who receives more votes in that state, even if the margin of victory is only 50.1% to 49.9%.
A candidate must earn a minimum of 270 electoral votes to declare victory, but technically, candidates can tie with 269 votes each.
A view of the North Side of the White House in Washington, D.C.
Getty
So what happens if neither Harris, 60, nor Trump, 78, reach the 270 minimum electoral votes to secure the White House?
In that scenario, the presidential would no longer be determined by the Electoral College and would instead be delegated to Congress to make the final decision. The newly elected House would decide the president, and the newly elected Senate would decide the vice president.
The rules are not so simple, though. When the House votes on the president, each state only gets one vote total. The congressional delegation from each state would sort out how to assign their state’s vote, and a candidate would need 26 votes to win the presidency.
As it stands, there are more Republican-leaning states than Democratic, meaning Trump would have the upper hand.
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in New York City on Sept. 11, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty
Should the House find itself stuck with a 25-25 split and fail to elect a candidate before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, the vice president-elect would serve as acting president until the House breaks its stalemate.
For the vice presidential contest, every senator gets to cast a vote, meaning the party that secures the Senate majority in November would likely be the party who chooses the VP.
The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers to serve as a compromise in presidential elections between the House and U.S. citizens.
In The Federalist, published between 1787 and 1788, Alexander Hamilton said, “A small number of persons, selected by their fellow citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.”
