# Senate spit is 50/50. Who gets to elect a majority leader? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 7, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-spit-is-50-50-who-gets-to-elect-a-majority-leader/929947 "2021-01-07T18:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-spit-is-50-50-who-gets-to-elect-a-majority-leader/929947/21 "2021-01-08T18:02:24Z")
In addition to breaking ties in the Senate (and usually presiding in the EC count), filling in for the president, 25th amendment, don’t forget protecting the space-time continuum 😉 [http://www.cc.com/video-clips/p1jk76/futurama-action-rangers](http://www.cc.com/video-clips/p1jk76/futurama-action-rangers) Brian ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-spit-is-50-50-who-gets-to-elect-a-majority-leader/929947/22 "2021-01-08T18:21:38Z")
It’s certainly going to inconvenience Harris, but I don’t think her having to be available for ties is going to significantly impact her ability to play a role in the Administration. Schumer has some latitude to schedule votes so that they can work around her schedule, the Senate takes plenty of recesses – I mean “district work periods” – when she’s free to do as she likes. During the seven months when the Senate was tied in 2001, Dick Cheney only ended up casting two tie-breaking votes. Things have certainly gotten more partisan since then, but Schumer should have a pretty good sense of which votes he’s going to need Harris for in advance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senate-spit-is-50-50-who-gets-to-elect-a-majority-leader/929947.md?page=1)