{"id":2915,"date":"2004-11-02T11:46:36","date_gmt":"2004-11-02T16:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2915.html"},"modified":"2004-11-02T11:46:36","modified_gmt":"2004-11-02T16:46:36","slug":"in-case-of-a-tie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/in-case-of-a-tie\/","title":{"rendered":"In case of a tie…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I suspect neither side of the political divide wants to see the presidential race end up in a 269-269 tie, but with the possibility out there, Congress is making the preparations, should they be necessary.<\/p>\n

Many people realize that a tie electoral college will send the presidential election to the House. It would not, however, be a simple majority-rule vote. Instead of each House member getting a vote, each state<\/i> gets a vote. The first to get 26 states wins. Because Republicans hold majorities in 30 states, Bush would be poised for a victory in the event of an unlikely tie. But, Congress being Congress, the possibility for curveballs remain.<\/p>\n

First, the House has to prepare for the possibility that it could decide the next president for the first time in 180 years. The Hill reported today<\/a> that GOP leaders are establishing new procedures now.<\/p>\n

The GOP leaders’ proposed rule change would lock more certainty into the process and ensure that the party’s numerical advantage is not unexpectedly squandered.<\/p>\n

Leadership-backed rules changes generally pass on a party-line vote.<\/p>\n

One of the adjustments would dictate what to do in the even that a state delegation was deadlocked. The Constitution does not spell out that these delegations would be removed from the tally, but that is what the GOP leadership would likely propose.<\/p>\n

There is no rule on whether states must canvass their members in private or in public, nor whether a member may request a secret ballot within the delegation.<\/p>\n

“There’s no real model to look after,” said one House leadership aide, who said leaders might just “leave it up to the states” to decide how to award their vote. <\/p>\n

“Or we could micromanage a scenario where the procedures for the delegations to decide their vote for president in the House of Representatives will be X. That procedure would be adopted for the whole House.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given the circumstances, I think micromanagement seems like a safe bet. Tom DeLay seems to hate uncertainties.
\n
\nThe fear, of course, would be disloyal party members. In 2000, Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.), the last of the very liberal Republicans, said she’d vote with her constituents if the House got the election, which meant a vote for Gore. This year. South Dakota’s lone Representative, Stephanie Herseth (D), said she too would decide how her constituents decide, which would mean a vote for Bush. New House rules would presumably crack down on these kinds of possible shifts and establish some set rules for how states went about choosing.<\/p>\n

But what about those aforementioned curveballs?<\/p>\n

* The 2005 House, not this one, would get to decide. Most of this year’s races aren’t competitive, but one never knows what the next House is going to look like.<\/p>\n

* The already narrowly-divided Senate would get to pick the VP. Each member, not each state, would get a vote. (The Constitution is quirky this way.) If there were a 50-50 tie, would Lincoln Chafee break ranks and abandon Cheney? Seems like a distinct possibility. If not, who breaks the tie? Apparently, Cheney, as the current VP and president of the Senate, would get the opportunity to vote to elect himself to a second term.<\/p>\n

* Could the House pick Bush and the Senate choose Edwards? Sure.<\/p>\n

But, and here’s a biggie, if there’s a 269-269 tie, one Republican elector — South Charleston, W.Va., Mayor Richie Robb — has already indicated that he may not back Bush<\/a> in the electoral college.<\/p>\n

“There is an implied duty to vote for your party’s candidate. But I don’t think it’s an explicit duty or responsibility,” said Robb, a moderate Republican who has a reputation of being a maverick in the state party. <\/p>\n

Still, Robb calls it “highly unlikely” that he would cast a vote for Democrat John Kerry. He said he might cast his vote for Vice President Dick Cheney or another Republican instead as a protest against Bush, meaning the president would lose out on one electoral vote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And at that point, one vote may make a huge difference. We can only hope it never gets to this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suspect neither side of the political divide wants to see the presidential race end up in a 269-269 tie, but with the possibility out there, Congress is making the preparations, should they be necessary. Many people realize that a tie electoral college will send the presidential election to the House. It would not, however, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}