Quote:
Originally Posted by Cornell
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Hi Cornell,
I ain't no expert, but I think Congress only gets to choose the president if there is no-one who has a clear majority in the electoral college votes...
For example, that could happen if each candidate gets 269 electoral votes, and there's a tie...
I looked it up, in 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each won 73 electoral votes - a tie. So Congress had to decide.
I think in 1824, no candidate won a majority of the electoral votes (I think there were 4 different candidates for president who won different states)...
In 2020, as only Biden or Trump have won electoral college votes, it either has to be a tie (269-269), or there will be a winner.
I don't think (and I'm no expert) it matters how close the votes are - that just determines whether a recount is triggered. So, for example, Georgia this year will be close, and there will probably be a recount. But after the recount, there will still be a winner for those Georgian electoral votes.
On close votes, take the 2016 election... Michigan was won by Trump by 0.3%, and New Hampshire was won by Trump by 0.4%... But Trump still got all those electoral college votes... They're still counted, even if there is a one vote difference between the winner and the loser...
If it's very close and court cases are involved, then it is another matter again... I guess we'll see what happens there...
In that case, it would matter how close the counts are. For example, if one candidate is ahead of another candidate by 5,000 votes, yet only 1,000 votes are challenged in court, even if they won the court case, it wouldn't change the result... When you subtract 1000 votes from the 5000 vote winner, and add them to the loser, the winner would still be ahead by 3000 votes.
So - again, I'm no expert - in my opinion, I think it is pretty unlikely that Congress will choose the president here, as I think when all the dust has settled, one candidate will have 270 or more electoral votes... (Even with a few pretty close states.)
But I could be wrong...
Anyway, that's my 2.75 Australian cents (equivalent to 2 US cents)!
- Dien