To throw it to the House? Or is it too late for all that?
I ask cause I can’t believe the House would go Trump. I’ve seen the possibilty given enough states could refuse to vote that would give no clear cut winner and throwing the election to Ryan??
The House is constitutionally required to select from among the top three finishers in the Electoral College. Should Johnson peel off enough states to throw the election to the House, Trump would win. But that won’t happen.
Not a chance. If a third party gets strong enough to actually carry any states, one of the Big Two parties will be bleeding votes to it so badly that the other Big Two party will score a 350+ EV landslide.
An EC vote tie of 269-269 is more likely than the OP scenario, and even that is probably less than 1% chance of happening.
If some sort of snafu caused the election to go to the House of Representatives, there is no guarantee Trump would be the beneficiary. The establishment Republicans might go to Ryan, as you say. As well, don’t forget that Democrats would be voting as well, although in minority, you can see that deal making and horse trading would be the order of the day and determine the outcome. As well, if the House cannot come up with a majority candidate then the election goes to the Senate.
The thing is, as things stand now, it is difficult to imagine any 3rd party winning a state. It would have to be some really strong regional issue that does that a la George Wallace 1968.
Having said that, remember that, just like delegates at the Cons after a first ballot, the electoral voters are actually free to vote for whomever they want to, not being legally beholden to their candidate, when the college convenes to vote in order to make the election official. There have been electoral college voters who have jumped ship and made protest votes in the past.
That’s why the choosing of a slate of electoral voters in a state by the two major parties is done with the utmost care. Loyalty etc.
No, a third party will not win enough votes to mean diddly-squat. This comes up every year. Short of an extremely charismatic third party candidate or a huge sectional issue (George Wallace) it will never happen.
I’m nitpicking here, but The House Or the states?
If the House is but the States arn’t then you could have a situation where the House says the winner has to have 50+% of the vote but we can’t get 50% because some of these states are abstaining.
Sorry if I’m being pedantic but i think we’ve seen before where the govt. makes it up as it goes along sorta. See 2000 election.
The House could not go to Ryan unless he was in the top three finishers in the Electoral College.
The House does not vote as individuals, but by state.
This is not accurate. The House continues to vote as long as it takes.
SO…we could have a situation where if someone wins by few enough electoral votes…OR a tie…enough electors could switch or abstain to prevent the outcome given Election Night???
Can you imagine the CF? Clinton wins by 4 and the whole country thinks she’s won until they actually convene when we 4 people up and upend the whole thing?
What does that mean?
I’m not sure I’m understanding you; if my answer doesn’t make sense to you, that’s why. You mean if the state delegations in the House abstain?
As above, the House will continue to vote as long as it takes. Should they not have selected a winner by January 20th, the VP-elect will take office as Acting President until a President is selected.
Aha! you say. There won’t be a VP-elect either. Well, there probably would be. The Senate votes for VP, and as individuals, so whoever has a majority in the new Senate would have selected Pence or Kaine on what would presumably be a straight party vote.
Now, should that fail too, then, yes, the Speaker of the House becomes Acting President, but only until a President or VP is qualified.
I did make a couple of mistakes in my post. Yes, only the top 3 candidates are eligible. And the House has until January 20th to decide.
The Senate chooses the Vice President between the top2 candidates. Who becomes president on January 20th until the House can decide.
Speaker: “How does Oklahoma vote”
Rep Bridenstine: “The five Representatives of Oklahoma abstain”
If enough States abstained you couldn’t get to 50%. Of course no Dem would abstain so it would have to be all Republican states. BUT as someone else posted, there’s no reason for this if there’s no way for it to get to Ryan.
Unless…I guess…the states can abstain forever? I know i’m really stretching here. But the world has seen crazy loopholes exploited before.
So in this batshit scenario I’ve created, Pence could become President while the House says “Sorry Drumpf! We tried…let’s move on.”
Here’s a nightmare scenario for ya- On election night it ends in a EV tie. Knowing it will now go the HR, when it comes for the EC to vote, one or more faithless electors vote for somebody other than Clinton or Trump (Cruz, Romney, Ryan, Sanders, Joe Biden, whoever) for president. One of THOSE people can be elected in the House- or again the House could deadlock with no-one getting a majority.
Bonus Question: If there is a tie for third place in the EC vote, who goes to the election in the House (e.g., Cruz and Sanders each get 1 faithless elector vote)?
If repubs retained the Senate and House in November, the House would vote Trump in, knowing the repub majority in the Senate would figure out a way to get rid of the 60 vote filibuster in the next session of Congress.
As soon as Trump was sworn in, within a couple of weeks Congress would pass all kinds of shit that Trump would sign expecting a quid pro quo for his own shit.
Wait, I didn’t know about this. Does that mean that, for example, Illinois has a majority Dem representative, would have all 18 votes go to Clinton? Or does each state get 1 vote with first to 26 wins?
This.
In choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.
As long as one member from each state is present, the state is present. Each state has one vote. First candidate to 26 wins. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified.
No fair using primary sources!