What if the map looks like...?

[DA]

What if the election turns out like my map? How is a victor decided?

[Nym90]

The House of Representatives would elect the President in the event of a tie, with each state's delegation getting one vote (whoever gets the most votes from each state's delegation gets that state's vote).

Thus, Bush would probably win, since the GOP will most likely control a majority of state House delegations in the new Congress.

The Senate would elect the Vice President. Thus, if the GOP holds the Senate, Cheney would probably win, but if the Democrats can manage to win the Senate back, Edwards could actually end up as VP. We could potentially end up with a Bush/Edwards administration.

[DA]

Would that be the newly elected House and Senate or the one's for the election year?

[JohnFKennedy]

What if the election turns out like my map? How is a victor decided?

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.


BTW, it is the newly elected house and senate who vote.

[Nym90]

What if the election turns out like my map? How is a victor decided?

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.


BTW, it is the newly elected house and senate who vote.

Yep, because the new Congress is sworn in January 3, and the Electoral Vote isn't officially certified until January 6. So between January 6 and January 20 is when the voting would take place.

[Gabu]

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.

Not only do they take DC in his map, it's not even a tossup.

[A18]

I have a question.

Let's say a state has 2 representatives. One rep votes Bush, the other Kerry.

Then what? Does the state just not vote?

[Fritz]

I have a question.

Let's say a state has 2 representatives. One rep votes Bush, the other Kerry.

Then what? Does the state just not vote?

Yes, thats true.  If a state has an evenly split delegation, and no one breaks party, that state has abstained from the vote.

[DA]

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.

Not only do they take DC in his map, it's not even a tossup.

They don't normally vote Rep? I don't know very many states (and district) obviously...

[YRABNNRM]

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.

Not only do they take DC in his map, it's not even a tossup.

They don't normally vote Rep? I don't know very many states (and district) obviously...

D.C is largely minorities....not the best GOP voting block

They would vote for a limabean if it had a D next to his name....well they did elect Marion Berry....more than once....

[Fritz]

Please tell me your just kidding.  DC is the most solidly Democratic state (considering it as a state for Presidential election purposes).  Democrats usually get about 85%.

[DA]

That seems odd. I suppose that the people that work there largely live in surrounding states?
Do Congressmen vote their own state (I would assume do) or DC?

[Platypus]

In your first prediction you have DC as strong D; so I don't quite believe your claim that the 269 tie wasn'ty done on purpose

If you want a tied map, I suggest you swap Iowa and Wisconsin, and turn DC red for realism.

[DA]

If you read my first map's notes you'll see that most of it was based off of the defaults. I'll fix my predictioas later...

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.

Not only do they take DC in his map, it's not even a tossup.

They don't normally vote Rep? I don't know very many states (and district) obviously...

D.C is largely minorities....not the best GOP voting block

They would vote for a limabean if it had a D next to his name....well they did elect Marion Berry....more than once....

They're not stupid.
They'd vote for Republican Lincoln Chaffee over Democrat Zell Miller.

[badnarikin04]

If I were a Representative in this situation, I would vote for Badnarik.

Yep.

[JohnFKennedy]

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.

Not only do they take DC in his map, it's not even a tossup.

They don't normally vote Rep? I don't know very many states (and district) obviously...

D.C is largely minorities....not the best GOP voting block

They would vote for a limabean if it had a D next to his name....well they did elect Marion Berry....more than once....

They're not stupid.
They'd vote for Republican Lincoln Chaffee over Democrat Zell Miller.

Wanna bet? Maybe Zell'd get a lower majority than the usual 75%+ but he'd still take it.

[jimrtex]

I have a question.

Let's say a state has 2 representatives. One rep votes Bush, the other Kerry.

Then what? Does the state just not vote?

There have been 2 elections decided by the House.  In 1801, the Thomas Jefferson-Aaron Burr tie sent the race to the House.  At that time it was the lame duck Congress that counted the votes, and the Federalist had a majority, and preferred Burr over Jefferson, even though they were both Democrat-Republicans.

On the first ballot, Jefferson received the vote of 8 states, Burr 6 States, and Maryland and Vermont were tied, 4:4 and 1:1, respectively.  A majority of the 16 states was needed.  The Constitution specifies a majority of the States, not a majority of the States present, or a majority of the States that vote.

Voting continued for 36 ballots over a week, before finally the Maryland and Vermont delegations switched to Jefferson.

Had the Representatives voted as individuals, rather than by States, Burr might have been elected.

In 1825, no candidate had a majority of electoral votes.  John Quincy Adams was elected on the first ballot by 13 of 24 States defeating Andrew Jackson and William Crawford.  The rules from that election might be used in the future.  It calls for the representatives from each State to sit together, and if any candidate receives a vote from the majority of a State's representative, the State votes for the candidate.  Otherwise, the State is listed as divided, effectively abstaining.

[nclib]

Republicans take D.C.? Won't happen.

Not only do they take DC in his map, it's not even a tossup.

They don't normally vote Rep? I don't know very many states (and district) obviously...

D.C is largely minorities....not the best GOP voting block

They would vote for a limabean if it had a D next to his name....well they did elect Marion Berry....more than once....

They're not stupid.
They'd vote for Republican Lincoln Chaffee over Democrat Zell Miller.

Wanna bet? Maybe Zell'd get a lower majority than the usual 75%+ but he'd still take it.

Even if Blacks were 75% for Miller (unlikely), D.C. whites would be overwhelmingly for Chafee, so Miller certainly couldn't get above 60%.

[willhsmit]

badnarikin04, my interpretation of the constitution (article 2, section 1 modified by 12th Amendment) is that only the top three candidates, by electoral votes, can be voted for in the House of Representatives. I presume that if only two candidates have electoral votes at all, then only those two would be eligible. So Nader or Badnarik would have to actually win a state outright (modulo Maine or Nebraska) to be eligible.

Theoretically, even 1 rogue EV could qualify, though, as long as neither of the other candidates had a majority. So the temptation for a rogue elector to try to render his candidate eligible for consideration might be considerable in the case of a tie, assuming he thought the majority party in the House might go for it. Reagan in '76, or Bentsen in '88.

Of course, the example of Bentsen's rogue voter raises the question of whether the same person could be elected both President and Vice-President, since the Senate can only chose between the top two candidates for VP.