USA Today had a list of scenarios that could happen on November 2nd in the event of a close election. The first and only time there was a tie in the Electoral College was in 1800 and the House of Representatives elected the President and the Senate elected the Vice President. Here are some of the nightmare scenarios:
Both candidates end up with 269 votes, one vote shy of being elected President. In this case, the election goes to the House of Representatives and the President is chosen from the top three vote-getters. Each state is allowed one vote. In the Senate, they choose the Vice President; each Senator gets one vote.
However, if there is enough of a shift in the general election that both parties are of equal strength, this scenario could get very weird. We could end up with Bush as President, and John Edwards as his Vice President. Or Kerry as President and Cheney as Vice President. The Kerry-Cheney combo would be explosive as they are not being nice to one another right now.
How could something like this happen? Here’s what USA Today says:
•For a tie: Every state votes the way it did four years ago, except for two. New Hampshire and West Virginia, which voted for Bush last time, go Democratic this time. Kerry is competitive in both states.
•For a divided result that elects Bush: Every state votes the way it did four years ago, giving Bush an electoral-vote majority of 278. (That's a more comfortable edge than last time, a side effect of the redistribution of congressional seats and electoral votes after the 2000 Census. In 2000, Bush got 271 votes, one more than required.) But Kerry carries the popular vote, as Al Gore did, by rolling up big totals in such strongholds as California and New York.
•For a divided result that elects Kerry: Every state votes the way it did four years ago, except for one. Kerry wins Florida, for a majority of 287 electoral votes, or Ohio, for 280. They went Republican in 2000; state polls released Sunday show Kerry and Bush tied in both. But Bush carries the popular vote by scoring oversized margins in his home state of Texas and in the South and Mountain West.
So what does this mean? It means get out and vote so we have a clear winner and no confusion. Having a clear winner will clear the air about stolen elections and put the 2000 Presidential Election to bed forever.
The ideal result would be to have the candidate win the popular vote and the Electoral College in a landslide, but that is unlikely to happen.
Here is the story.
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