Maybe I missed it, but I haven’t seen anyone address this question yet. With only ± 2000 votes in question, I suppose it’s still highly unlikely, but not impossible.
I’m glad you asked, I was wondering this myself. Not necessarily an exact tie, but close enough that there is substantial evidence that “the will of the people may have been thwarted”, which I heard on the news was the legal hurdle necessarry for the courts to intervene.
Is there any legal possibility under Florida law that they would find the best resolution is to split the electoral votes among the two candidates (I don’t know who gets the extra vote)?
I should clarify that by “the courts” in my first paragraph, those are Florida courts, not federal.
About 12 years ago, my grandfather ran for Mayor of the town (~population of 5000) in West Virginia where he lived. After all the votes were counted and recounted, including a lot of absentee balots that were contested, the vote resulted in a dead even tie. The solution under WV law was to pick the winner by random lot. The law wasn’t specific as to how to do it, so he and his opponent aggreed to play high card. The 13 spades from a standard deck of cards was placed on a table while both candidates were out of the room. The came in drew cards and the high card was declared the winner. My grandfather drew a 7 and the other guy a 9.
In the past, if a state couldn’t decide they mere didn’t vote. So if there is no decision, Gore wins.
jmullaney,
Why would Gore win? Nobody then have the requisite 269 electoral votes and it would go to the house, is my WAG.
Actually, I brought it up in this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45662
Zev Steinhardt
I’m pretty sure that FL would choose the winner by lot if there was a tie between Gore and Bush. That’s what I thought I read in the Florida election laws on the web. However, it was pretty confusing. There may be a different procedure for the presidential race than for other offices.
That said, I’m willing to bet that there won’t be one.
If so, again, I say we go to penalty kicks.
Believe it or not, that did finally occur to me – it just took a few minutes! Thanks for pointing out my error!!
Now, in the House states with divided delegations do not vote, so I still think Gore might have a slight edge. Anyone know?
Um…they used LOTS?
Great. That’s REALLY a secure way to pick the leader of the free world.
According to my count, the Republicans control 27 state delegations in the future House, so if it goes there, it’s a done deal for Bush. It could be 28 states if the outstanding race in New Jersey goes to the Republican.
I dont think the case would get as far aa a court hearing. From what I remember learning in history is that if there was somehow a complete tie, the election would then go to the house. Also, since there is a little bit of voter fraud hanging around (supposedly) down there in Florida, the results from the Florida votes may very well be thrown out, giving no one those electoral votes and the decision of who would be the next president would go to the House.
I think they should decide it with an Eric Cartman style Ro-sham-bo.
The great thing is that if it goes to the house, and they tie, it goes to the vice president. Mr. Gore could choose himself for president.
I’d rather they’d settle the dispute like gentlemen–Burr and Hamilton for example.
Actually, didn’t Burr challenge Hamillton to a duel because Hamillton picked Jefferson to be President?
Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel over some allegations about an affair with a woman that Hamilton had I believe. The two men hadn’t liked each other for a long time. The duel was in 1803 I believe, two years after Burr lost the presidency to Jefferson.
From what I heard on the news, it doesn’t go to the (newly elected) house until Jan. 6, 2001. The electoral college convenes on Dec 19th, IIRC, so they’d have 2 1/2 weeks to select a president. After the first vote, they can vote for anybody, so no telling who might end up president.
The electors don’t get a second vote. They vote on December 18, send their ballots to Washington and then Congress counts them. If there’s any problem after that, it’s Congress’s problem.
Only the House of Representatives would vote for President. The Vice-President is the President of the Senate (and in any case, he only votes in that chamber in the case of a tie).