You are right, of course. Since I’ve “known” that they vote repeatedly for as long as I can remember, I can’t tell you where I came up with that.
The relevant sections of the Constitution are:
Article II, Section 1 - Election of the President
Amendment XII - Choosing the President
Amendment XX - Presidential and Congressional Terms
Reading these sections, we note the following:
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Florida gets to decide how its electors are selected (Art. II, Sec. 1). Thus, the result of the Florida election would be governed by Florida law. Bob T suggests that law provides for the determination of tied elections by random lot; I suspect his reading of the statutes is correct.
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As noted, the electors ‘meet’ once to cast their votes, which results are tabulated and sent sealed to the President of the Senate. Then they are done, go home and await what happens. (Art. II, Sec. I; Amendment XII). Note that the electors must all cast their ballots on the same day.
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If there is no candidate for President who receives a majority of the electors’ votes, then the House of Representatives chooses the President from among those with the three largest electoral vote totals. In such a choice, each state delegation in the House gets one vote, and a majority of states have to vote in favor of the winner. If they can’t manage that by 3/4/01, then the Vice-President becomes President (assuming that the Vice-President has, indeed, been chosen by then). (Amendment XII)
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If there is no properly selected President by the 20th of January, then the “Vice-President elect” acts as President until one is selected. Congress gets to make a law to determine who acts as President if there is no properly chosen Vice-President yet (as seems inevitable if the President hasn’t yet been determined). (Amendment XX). Perhaps someone can supply the relevant federal statute.
Now, let’s get to the really sticky issue. What happens if the Democrats and the Republicans fail to resolve the issue of which set of electors were chosen by the people of Florida before December 18. In that case, we have some history to guide us.
In 1876, the election between Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) and Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat) was closely contested. Tilden received the majority of the popular vote as originally tallied. With the results of the elections in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina in dispute between the parties, Tilden had 184 electors, Hayes 165, with 19 electors in the three disputed states, and one elector from the state of Oregon disputed. The canvassing in the states was not resolved by December 6, when the electors voted, so rival votes were sent to Congress by the states in question. After some wrangling, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission to resolve the dispute as to which electors had been properly chosen by the three states and which third elector from Oregon was properly to vote. After political wheeling and dealing which is outside the scope of our review (it makes fascinating reading), the Commission voted 8-7 (along party lines) to accept the Republican electors in all cases, resulting in a 185-184 vote in favor of Hayes, who was declared President by the Congress 3/2/76.
Applying that prior situation to our current situation, one suspects that, if the state of Florida has not resolved the court challenges to the election results by 12/18, then rival groups of electors will vote and send their sealed results to Congress. If, by the date that the Congress is to open those results and tabulate them (1/6/01 I believe), Florida still has not resolved who won the election, Congress would presumably intervene and make its own determination which electors’ results to accept from Florida. If by 1/20/01 no decision is made by Congress, then the President of the United States would be whoever federal statute denotes is to act as President until a choice is made.
In the case of a tie, I think Al and George ought to settle it in a match of naked mud wrestling, three falls out of five.