US presidential election: who wins in the event of a perfect tie?

What if Donald Trump and Joe Biden each win 269 out of 538 voters? While the final results are still far from being known, the hypothesis of a perfect equality between the two candidates cannot be ruled out. Such a scenario has only occurred once in the history of the United States … in 1800. And to decide, a complex procedure is put in place, reports France Info.

The American Constitution is indeed very clear: if no winner is elected by the electoral college, it is the House of Representatives which will have the heavy burden of appointing the president. With the Democrats in the majority, it is tempting to think that Joe Biden would then easily win. However, each of the 435 deputies does not vote individually since the representatives are grouped by state. Each state represents one vote and the first candidate to reach 26 votes is elected. In this game, it is therefore Donald Trump who would be advantaged, since Republicans occupy more States than Democrats.

In American history, the perfect equality between two candidates only occurred once, in 1800, recalls Le Figaro. At that time, the Constitution required that the president and the vice-president be elected together: the candidate who came out on top became president and the second, vice-president. Thus, by 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had each garnered 73 votes. It then took 36 rounds for the House of Representatives to elect the first. To prevent such a situation from happening again, the 12^e Constitution amendment was created to distinguish the vote of the president from that of the vice-president.

No result before the end of the week?

But before considering a scenario of equality, it is necessary that the large voters return their verdict. Problem: It might not be known for several days. A total of eight states have yet to publish their results and among them, six swing states, for 97 electors. With a score of 238 for Joe Biden and 213 for Donald Trump, nothing is decided yet. And according to Bloomberg News reporter Saleha Mohsin, quoted by Le Figaro, the results of these states may not be known until… the end of the week.

In particular: the vote by mail. More than 100 million citizens have in fact used this system, before the opening of the polling stations on Tuesday, November 3. This is double from four years ago. The counting of these votes is slower than the physical vote and the US postal services are overwhelmed, accumulating delivery delays. In addition, this system increases the risk of incorrect ballots, in particular because of the problem of missing or non-compliant signatures. Le Figaro. Several strategic states, such as Michigan and North Carolina, therefore leave the possibility for voters to vote again in the event of an error. A step that may further slow down the counting.