What if the Presidential election ends in a tie?

[Nym90]

It could happen, and it would be good to get some ideas now. Even if it doesn't happen this year, we should do something about this for future races...the Constitution does not address this.

[Nym90]

Thanks Blerpiez. I must have overlooked this.

It's still worth debating whether or not we should change the law though. Although this seems as fair as any way to do it. Similar to the way it's done in real life.

[Nym90]

Ah, but what if the Senate is equally divided 5-5? It could well happen this year even...given the likely makeup of the new Senate, I could very well see an even split there too.

[Nym90]

Though with preferential voting, we already have a runoff basically...that's the entire idea. It's instant runoff voting (as it is often known). With a runoff, everybody would have to vote again, and almost no one would change their vote I'd think, at least not differently than their original preference between the two surviving candidates. It would be a battle of turnout essentially.

First choice votes as a tiebreaker would make some sense...if both had equal support among the whole electorate, it would make sense to make the tiebreaker be the candidate who has the greatest depth of support.

For this election though, since the Constitution says the Senate will decide, I think we should do that. It's an issue to consider for the future though.

[Nym90]

Agreed, I can see what you are saying now. A good point.

Having the Senate decide it is the closest approximation to the way it works in the US. I'm honestly undecided myself...we'll have to debate it and decide if we want to change after the election.

[Nym90]

Newly elected Senate would be the fairest.

[Nym90]

I'll go for that.

I'm 6'3", 220 lbs, I'd like my chances.