What Happens If the Electoral College Is Tied?
Many election irregularities are possible and even expected on election day, including challenges to voters, arguments over provisional ballots, and much more. But even if the actual election goes fairly well, there is another potential problem: a tie in the electoral college.
Starting from today's map, suppose Mitt Romney wins Ohio and New Hampshire, making the score Obama 268 and Romney 270. But then suppose Obama wins congressional district NE-02, which he did in 2008, giving Obama one more electoral vote and splitting the electoral college down the middle, 269-269. (Actually, there are nearly 100 different ways it could be tied, as we discussed earlier.
According to the Constitution, the newly elected House would choose the President, with each state getting one vote. Probably most representatives would vote the party line, but the pressure on individual representatives to switch might be enormous. In the most likely scenario, Romney would be elected President by the House. But that is not the end of the story. If the Democrats hang onto the Senate, mostly likely the Senate would elect Joe Biden as Vice President. If the new Senate is split 50-50 when it convenes on Jan. 3, 2013, the sitting Vice President--Joe Biden--would break the tie. Judging from his attitude at the vice-presidential debate, Biden doesn't seem to think much of Paul Ryan and would probably vote for Joe Biden as Vice President.
What would a Romney-Biden administration be like? A lot depends on how Romney treats Biden. Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton all gave their Veeps lots of assignments. George H.W. Bush didn't think a lot of Dan Quayle and told him to stay in his room for 4 years. What would Romney do, given that he and Biden don't see eye to eye on anything and Romney can't realistically count on there being a funeral of a foreign leader every week to send Biden to.
At one extreme, Romney could completely shut Biden out of everything. No attendance at any important meetings, no work assignments, nothing at all. Absent a 50-50 split in the Senate, Biden would have nothing to do and might decide to spend the four years attacking everything Romney did, day and night, possibly in preparation for a 2016 run. It is doubtful that Romney would appreciate such a high-profile figure lambasting him day and night, but what could he do? At the other extreme, he could give Biden some actual work to do, assuming there were some items on the agenda where they actually agreed, but it is hard to see what they might be.
Having a President and Vice President from different parties is not a good idea. The country discovered this in the third presidential election (in 1796). At that time, the Constitution said that the guy with the most EVs got to be President and the guy with the next largest number got to be Veep. In 1796, John Adams, a Federalist, was elected President, and Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the modern Democratic Party, was elected Vice President. They didn't get along all that well. In 1800, Vice President Jefferson challenged and defeated President Adams. This sort of situation let to the twelfth amendment to the Constitution, which says that each presidential elector is to cast separate votes for President and Vice President, so coming in second for President doesn't buy you much, although you might get your own TV show on some friendly network.