269-269 EV and 25-25 House Tie

[Bogart]

If the House cannot decide on a president, the newly elected vice president becomes Acting President. If the Senate ties as well and cannot elect a vice president to serve as acting president, then my assumption--following the order of succession--is the speaker of the House becomes Acting President.

This would remain the case until the House elected a president, or the Senate elected a vice president who would then serve as acting president.

I can't see this ever happening. If Congress put us in this kind of situation for very long, ther'd be hell to pay.

[Bogart]

While we don't yet know what the makeup of individual delegations will be in the new Congress, in general it's safe to assume that any evenly split delegations will be unable to produce a vote--for the aforementioned party unity reasons. The Constitution specifically states that the House must elect the president by a majority of state delegations. Using the current House, if all for of the evenly split delegations didn't vote, I believe it would not be possible to elect a president--assuming party unity is maintained.