# Electoral College ties 269-269 Any chance Romney is not elected by House? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 11, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392 "2012-09-11T13:37:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/1 "2012-09-11T13:37:01Z")
It is a hypothetical, and a lot of the numbers say achieving a 269-269 tie would be mathematically difficult… but just suppose. It is my understanding that such an election would be thrown to the House of Representatives. Each state’s delegation gets one vote. And since Republicans tend to carry more of the small states it seems likely Romney would take it. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/2 "2012-09-11T13:53:34Z")
IIRC, its the incoming Congress that votes in the event of a tie. So in the extremely unlikely event that there was a tie in the Electoral College but the Dems cleaned up in House races, Obama could be President. But realistically, the majority of House delegations would still be majority GOP in the next Congress, so a tie would result in President Romney. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/3 "2012-09-11T14:02:50Z")
And to add to the fun… in the even of a tie the Senate elects the VP. If the Dems hold they could elect VP Biden… or could they change the candidate and elect a VP Obama? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/4 "2012-09-11T14:11:46Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > And to add to the fun… in the even of a tie the Senate elects the VP. If the Dems hold they could elect VP Biden… or could they change the candidate and elect a VP Obama? They need to choose from the two people with the highest number of votes in the Electoral College for VP, which presumably would mean a choice between Biden and Ryan. In retrospect, its kind of silly to have an even number of Electors. Increasing the size of the House by one would make this scenario much more unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/5 "2012-09-11T14:29:57Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > They need to choose from the two people with the highest number of votes in the Electoral College for VP, which presumably would mean a choice between Biden and Ryan. > > In retrospect, its kind of silly to have an even number of Electors. Increasing the size of the House by one would make this scenario much more unlikely. 😕 How do we have an even number of electors? [The size of the HoR is fixed by law at 435 members.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Law_62-5) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/6 "2012-09-11T14:32:24Z")
DC has 3 electors and zero representatives. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/7 "2012-09-11T14:32:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 😕 How do we have an even number of electors? [The size of the HoR is fixed by law at 435 members.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Law_62-5) By…CHANGING the law? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/8 "2012-09-11T14:34:04Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 😕 How do we have an even number of electors? [The size of the HoR is fixed by law at 435 members.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Law_62-5) Unless I’m misremembering, each state gets a single vote in the case of a tie in a presidential election, meaning that there are 50 electors. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/9 "2012-09-11T14:37:11Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Unless I’m misremembering, each state gets a single vote, meaning that there are 50 electors. Your misremembering. Each state gets a number of electors equal to its congressional delegation (so, two for their senators plus however many for their Reps). So the total used to be 435 (number of Reps) + 100 (number of senators) = 535. An odd number. Then DC was given three electors, which would be the size of its Congressional delegation if it had a Congressional Delegation. Thus 538 electors. An even number. In the event that no one Candidate gets a majority of electors, the incoming House of Reps votes, with each state getting one vote. So in that case there are 50 “votes”, which may be what you were thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/10 "2012-09-11T14:38:08Z")
As you can see by my edited comment, I thought he was talking about something else. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/11 "2012-09-11T14:46:15Z")
No, there’s no chance of Obama getting elected by the House of Representatives if there’s a 269-all outcome. It’ll be President Romney. [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/08/30/mitt\_romneys\_one-vote\_edge\_115269.html](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/08/30/mitt_romneys_one-vote_edge_115269.html) says: > [@](#): > > Let’s assume that the Democrats were to win all the seats that RCP currently rates as tossups, as well as all the seats that RCP currently rates “Leans Republican.” > > If this occurred, Democrats would take back the House – handily in fact. But they wouldn’t control a majority of the state delegations; the competitive races are actually clustered in states like New York, Illinois and California, where Democrats already control the state delegations. To be precise, Democrats would control 24 delegations, with Wisconsin a 4-4 tie. > > Now this is really an apocalyptic scenario in the House, which would involve Republicans losing their open House seats in Montana and North Dakota. That’s hardly out of the question, but it isn’t likely to occur without Obama winning a substantial Electoral College victory. > > More realistically, in the event of an Electoral College tie, Republicans would probably win about half of the tossups, and control 32 delegations, with New Hampshire comprised of a split delegation. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/12 "2012-09-11T15:01:43Z")
Here’s a question for you though: how is the VP selected if the Senate has a 50-50 split? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/13 "2012-09-11T15:03:57Z")
I suppose the current vice president would have to break the tie. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/14 "2012-09-11T15:19:28Z")
Just in case…538 has the odds of an electoral vote tie at 0.3%. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/15 "2012-09-11T15:42:39Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I suppose the current vice president would have to break the tie. Does he still hold the office of vice president when Congress meets to tally the electoral college vote? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/16 "2012-09-11T15:49:21Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Does he still hold the office of vice president when Congress meets to tally the electoral college vote? Yes. He’s the one that certifies the vote, so he’s not only still in office but physically present when the electors votes are tallied. The new Congress meets on Jan 6th to certify the Presidential results, the old VP and Pres leave office (and their replacements take office) on Jan 20th. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/17 "2012-09-11T15:49:59Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Does he still hold the office of vice president when Congress meets to tally the electoral college vote? I’m pretty sure he’s vice president until a new vice president is sworn in. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/18 "2012-09-11T15:50:43Z")
He holds the office until the new one is sworn in. ETA: ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/19 "2012-09-11T16:18:44Z")
Although, now I’m wondering whether the vice president has a tie-breaking role in this situation. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392/20 "2012-09-11T16:19:26Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I suppose the current vice president would have to break the tie. > [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Does he still hold the office of vice president when Congress meets to tally the electoral college vote? Vice President Biden’s current term expires on January 20, 2013. Pretty sure any putative HoR presidential elections would take place well in advance of this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electoral-college-ties-269-269-any-chance-romney-is-not-elected-by-house/634392.md?page=2)