As Kenya and the rest of the world follow keenly on US Presidential election which is a very tight race, one questions lingers, what will happen if Donald Trump and Joe Biden tie in the electoral college vote?
According to The Independent, no US presidential election in modern times has ended in a tie.
However, with the gap quite narrow there has been fears of a potential tie between Biden and Trump.
The Independent reports, “In the event of a drawn result, the newly elected House of Representatives would choose the president, with each state delegation having one vote. A simple majority of states, equivalent to 26 votes or more, would be needed to win.”
By Thursday, Biden was leading with 264 against Trump’s 214.
According to the US laws, in the event of a tie then the decision is thrown over to the House of Representatives, which CNN further explains will have to pick the winner.
The decision on who will carry the day – whether the Democrats or the Republicans – solely lies with the Electoral College system.
It was the Electoral College that led to Trump’s victory against Hillary Clinton in 2016, after losing the popularity vote, but whether history will repeat itself still remains unknown.
Local media 7NEWS notes that each state’s delegation of lawmakers gets one vote and they choose between the top three electoral vote-getters.
“This means that every state gets one vote and it generally goes to the candidate won the popular vote in the state. It’s the newly sworn-in House and Senate that make the decisions.
“There are 50 states so, unfortunately, a tie again here is also not impossible.”
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According to NBC, if the House ends up in a tie one state would have to flip their vote to determine a winner.
They will have until January 20 to try to get the 26 votes.
In the event that there is still a tie on Inauguration Day, the vice president-elect will become the acting president until the House breaks the tie.
The Senate decides the vice president-elect by a majority vote in the Senate. There are 51 senators, which negates the possibility of a tie.
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