The 2016 Democratic Iowa Caucus saw the closest
result in Iowa history.
Less than three-tenths of a percent separated
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
Additionally, Clinton won in six tied precincts
by way of a coin toss.
Such a close start to the race made us want
to know what would happen if this trend made
it all the way to election day.
What would happen if two presidential candidates
tied?
Well, while this may seem unlikely, it is
actually easier than many people think.
The reason is that the US population does
not actually elect their president, but rather,
state representatives do via the electoral
college.
Basically, each state has a given number of
“electors”, which vary based on the population
of that state.
In total there are 538 electors.
Some very populated states like California
wield 55 electoral votes, while sparser states
like Alaska only have 3.
Moreover, if a candidate gets even slightly
more votes in a state, they get ALL of that
state’s electoral votes.
This basic process is written into Article
Two of the US Constitution.
So, has this ever led to a tie?
Yup, in 1800.
At the time there were fewer states, fewer
people, and an odd rule where the winner of
the election became president, and the second
runner up became vice president.
That’d be a little awkward today.
When the results came out, both Thomas Jefferson
and Aaron Burr had received 73 electoral votes
each.
To break the tie, the House of Representatives
voted amongst themselves, and eventually crowned
Jefferson the third President.
This unprecedented situation led to the twelfth
amendment, which changed both the way presidents
and vice presidents are picked, as well as
the procedure in case of a tie.
The biggest difference the 12th amendment
brought was that when the House would vote
on a tie for President, instead of states
having a proportional number of votes, each
state would only get one vote.
So now, California’s nearly 39-million-person
population equaled Wyoming’s 580,000 in
representation.
But even if there isn’t a tie, a close race
can still be difficult.
In the 2000 election between George W. Bush
and Al Gore, both candidates were short just
a few electoral votes necessary to win.
The final state which would decide the race
was Florida, with 25 electoral votes.
Florida’s tally showed a difference of less
than 1000 individual votes, pushing Gore to
demand a recount of several important counties.
However, the Supreme Court overruled the recount
as unconstitutional, and reverted the election
to Bush.
It also brought about one of the strongest
arguments against the electoral college.
Despite winning the largest number of electoral
votes by a margin of just 537 individual votes
in Florida, Bush actually got half a million
fewer votes in the overall election than Gore.
To this day this election is one of the most
contentious in US history.
In the end, an actual tie, or even getting
close to a tie, would lead to some fairly
non-democratic solutions.
Although, perhaps that’s not entirely surprising.
The United States is, by definition, not a
true democracy, but in fact, a constitutional
republic.
Wait, what?
America isn’t a democracy?
What does that mean?
What exactly is a constitutional republic?
Well, you can find out by watching this video
all about American Democracy.
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