With only one week left until the 2024 presidential electionanticipation for the Electoral College results is high across the country, with polls showing a straight race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

While voters will be eagerly awaiting the results to see which candidate received the majority of Electoral College votes, there is no such guarantee that a candidate will reach that point.

There are a total of 538 electoral votes at stake in the 2024 presidential election, with votes distributed between the 50 US states and Washington, DC by population.

A presidential candidate must receive 270 electoral votes to win the election, although it is possible for both major candidates to each receive 269 electoral votes, meaning that no candidate achieves victory by obtaining a majority of the electoral votes.

Although the scenario has never occurred in a US presidential election, there is a sequence of events that would follow if a rare outcome were to occur. Here’s what you need to know:

What if there is a tie between the Electoral College?

In the event of a 269-269 electoral college tie, the U.S. Senate votes to elect the vice president, while the U.S. House of Representatives votes to elect the president, according to Article Two, Section One, Clause Three of the US Constitution.

The 12th Amendment specifies that US representatives must choose between one of the top three presidential candidates in the electoral vote count, while US senators must choose between one of the top two vice presidential candidates in the electoral vote count.

While the electoral votes tied to each state determine the overall winner of the election and will be shown on election night maps, only the popular vote will have taken place by the time the polls close on Tuesday, November 5.

Each candidate has a slate of presidential electors in each state, who will then gather in state capitols and Washington, DC on December 17 to officially cast their electoral votes.

These electoral votes will then be counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2025.

While electors have pledged to vote for the candidates for whom they are voters, there have been numerous cases of “faithful electors” in the history of presidential elections – when a pledged voter votes for a candidate other than the one they pledged to vote for. vote for him.

While most previous cases of unfaithful voters have turned out to be inconsequential, a possible tie in the electoral college, or even a race with a slim electoral margin, would bring increased attention to what is normally a step procedurally in the electoral process.

Despite the fact that the House of Representatives has 435 members, each state’s delegation to the legislative body would vote for a presidential candidate “en bloc”, meaning that the representatives of a given state would have to decide on only one candidate.

Since each state has two US senators in its delegation, the senators will vote for their vice president individually.

The contingent election would be held on January 6, 2025, three days after the incoming Congress elected in the November general election is scheduled to take office.

Therefore, the results of the congressional elections would have a direct impact on the outcome of the presidential election should a contingent election occur.

The president and vice president-elect will be inaugurated on January 20, 2025.

Has there ever been a contingent election?

Yes, but not in modern American history.

Contingent elections have determined the winner of a presidential election twice in US history – 1800 and 1824.

In 1800candidates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were tied for the number of electoral votes, triggering a contingent election in 1801 by the outgoing congress.

As elections were held before the 12th Amendment was passed, there was no separate procedure for electing a President and Vice President.

Jefferson would win the contingent election with the support of 10 state House delegations, according to Dave Leip’s US Electoral Atlas.

Contingent elections were held in 1825 because no candidate had a majority of the electoral votes in the presidential election of 1824even though Andrew Jackson received more electoral votes than any other candidate.

Jackson was listed as a candidate in the contingent election alongside John Quincy Adams and William H. Crawford, who were the top three electoral vote recipients in the election.

Despite Jackson winning more electoral and popular votes than any other candidate, Adams won the contingent election with the support of the House delegations from 13 states.

In addition, a contingent election determined the vice president after the presidential election of 1836when Virginia voters refused to vote for President Martin Van Buren’s nominee, Richard Mentor Johnson. Johnson was later elected in the contingent election.

When was the last time there was an unfaithful voter?

Although the votes did not impact the outcome of the overall Electoral College vote, there have been several cases of faithless voters in recent presidential elections.

The most recent occurrence of faithless electors voting in the Electoral College was in 2016, when several electors committed to both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton voted for other candidates when they cast their ballots.

Two unfaithful Republican electors in Texas split with Trump, with one voter voting for 2016 Republican primary candidate John Kasich for president and fellow GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina for vice president. The other faithless Texas electorate voted for former presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul for president, while voting for Mike Pence for vice president as promised.

Five Democratic electors across the country split with Clinton, four of whom committed to vote for Clinton in Washington state and the other elector committed to vote for Clinton in Hawaii.

Three of the four faithless electors in Washington voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, for president, although each elector chose a different vice president. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, U.S. Sen. of Washington Maria Cantwell and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, also a Republican, received the vice presidential votes.

The other faithless elector in Washington voted for environmental activist Faith Spotted Eagle for president, while voting for Minnesota environmental activist Winona LaDuke for vice president.

Hawaii’s faithless voter voted for the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and US Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, while voting for Warren as vice president.

In 2004, a faithless elector in Minnesota voted for Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards for both president and vice president.

In 2000, a Democratic voter pledged to vote for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman in Washington, DC abstained.