Hypothetical Electoral College question

Ok, I know everyone is sick of hearing about it, but I was wondering about something.

IIRC, there are 538 electoral votes up for grabs, right? We keep hearing that the potential winner needs 270 to win, which is a majority of the votes (without it being a tie). (right?)

Just suppose (this is a BIG suppose, but bear with me) that Nader and Buchanan both got enough popular votes to capture a couple of states each. What if the four candidates (Bush, Gore, Nader and Buchanan) each got 130-some electoral votes…who would win? The person with the most electoral votes? Or does the potential winner HAVE to get 270 votes?

Thanks!

Potential winner HAS to get 270. Do a search here with the key words “electoral college tie”, and you’ll probably get about 6 threads.

Also, check out the 12th and 22nd amendments, which cover this.

Here’s the Constitution:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html

And the 22nd has nothing to do with it. Its in the 12th and Article 2, Section 1.

If nobody gets a majority of electoral votes, then it is decided by the House of Representatives. The three highest electoral vote-getters would be voted on by the House. Each state delegation gets one vote.

So, in your hypothetical, Gore, Bush and Nader would all have a shot at the presidency.