What happens if there's an Electoral College tie? Here's what to know as Trump and Harris face off in 2024
Explainer: If no one gets 270 electoral votes, the House of Representative decides who wins the presidency, with each state delegation getting one vote.
The election has already been filled with eye-popping and historically unusual events. One other potential scenario looms this fall: the "contingent election" of the president and the vice president that would happen if no one can secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential election.
That has not happened in the modern era, but there are a few conceivable (if unlikely) paths across the Electoral College map that could lead to former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris ending the race tied at 269 electoral votes.
Some of those scenarios include Republicans’ winning all of Nebraska’s votes, an uphill battle because the state doles out a vote to the winner of each of its congressional districts and Harris is favored to win in the Omaha-area 2nd District. (That’s why Republicans briefly, and unsuccessfully, sought to change Nebraska’s rules and make it a winner-take-all state.) And it's much less likely that a third-party candidate will win electoral votes and prevent someone else from getting a majority or that faithless electors will refuse to support a candidate, with the same end result.
In the event of a tie, Congress would decide the next president.
While the process would be hotly contested and historic, Congress has a set process to decide a president in that scenario, which would undoubtedly come after a slew of court challenges in key states aimed at challenging the election results there.
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