College Sports
An Electoral College tie is unlikely, but possible. What would then happen?
First I'd want to know if the Electors are free to vote how they choose, because if they are, imagine the pressure put on them to flip. But let's assume it ends up 269 to 269. So we then follow the Constitutional rules, right? Unfortunately, they aren't that clear.
Here's a solution that will never happen:
During the primaries, there was a fear Hillary might beat Obama without winning the popular vote, and many Democrats pledged that mustn't be allowed to happen. Maybe that would be a good thing for the Congress to say right now--that if there's a tie, they will award the office to the candidates with the most votes. Somehow, I don't see the Democrats willing to agree to that this time around.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:02 AM
1 Comments:
Electors are free to vote how they choose. Legally, the most that any elector could be bound would be that they would have to sign a contract with their state party. Breaking the contract would them subject them to a civil action. But that wouldn't invalidate their votes.
I used to wonder where they met -- but they don't. On the date they cast their ballots ("the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December", which is a silly way of saying "the Monday that falls within the interval 12/13 to 12/19") they meet in their respective state capitals.
Notice that the newly-elected Speaker of the House has the legal job of counting the ballots. If Ms. Pelosi deliberately miscounted, and pretended to read McCain votes as Obama votes, there would be no appeal.
[Of course, my last statement is naive. I thought there was no appeal from Katherine Harris' decision in 2000. Silly me.]
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