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THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE MAY
CREATE
A TIE IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL RACE!
October 2008
With the way Electoral
College points are assigned from state-to-state, we could end up
with a tied election. How is this possible and what would we do in
the event of a tie?
Since the 2000 presidential
election, 18 states have experienced a shift in electoral college
points. This fluctuation has caused some Democratic leaning states to
lose electoral college points to Republican leaning states, with a few
of those Republican leaning states possibly turning Democratic in this
election. How would this electoral tie take shape?
Well, if you start out
with the Democrats wining all of the states that they won in the
2000 presidential election, and if they were to gain just New
Hampshire and Nevada, you would have 269 electoral points for the
Democrats. Then, if the Republicans were to win all of the remaining
states, it would equal 269 electoral points for the Republicans.
That would give you a tie of 269 electoral points for the Democrats
and 269 for the Republicans.
In the event there is a
tie in the 2008 Presidential Election, the United States
Constitution has a solution under Amendment XII. The States would
have the appointed individuals of the electoral college cast their
vote within the state to see if any of them change their vote. If
none of them change their vote, and there is still a tie, it would
go to the United States House of Representatives who would then have
the rare opportunity to pick the next President of the United
States. The United Sates Senate would then pick the Vice President
for the United States.
These appointments may
fall along party lines with the remote possibility of a Democratic
President and a Republican Vice President, if the current Congress
chooses. If it is the newly elected House of Representatives,
it could very much be a tie.
Which states
fluctuated in electoral points since the 2000 election? See below:
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States that have voted Republican since 2000:
Arizona +2
Colorado +1
Florida +2
Georgia +2
Indiana -1
Mississippi -1
Nevada +1
North Carolina +1
Oklahoma -1
Ohio -1
Texas +2
Net Total +7
States that have voted Democratic since 2000:
California +1
Connecticut -1
Illinois -1
Michigan -1
New York -2
Pennsylvania -2
Wisconsin -1
Net Total -7
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Over
all, one must ask how accurate the electoral college is if it uses
congressional representatives to establish electoral points for each
state. If anything, there is some suggestion that new congressional
seats should be added to avoid a future tie. However, according to
the Constitution, Article One Section 2, there is to be one
representative for every 30,000 individuals. With almost
300,000,000 people, that would equal approximately 10,000
representatives.
(See
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html.)
Unfortunately, we may need to build a new capital building to house
a stadium that can handle that many representatives. So how did we
get to the point of limiting the size of Congress? To solve this
issue, the House of Representatives made an adjustment to the size
of the representative body, freezing it at 435. This was achieved by
”The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929," which capped the
membership at that level, creating a procedure for reapportioning
state delegations in the House under “the then existing number of
Representatives (See Act of June 18, 1929, ch. 28, 46 Stat 21)."
(See
http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/congApp.html.)
Even
though this was accomplished by the House, there are many others who
hold the belief that the constitution had intended there to be two
houses of the legislative government: the Senate with equal
representation for each state, and the House of Representatives with
each member representing a specific size of the population within
their state.
(See
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/.)
Even if we were to increase the
number of representatives, we would need to see some kind of limit to
the numbers of representatives. (See
http://www.helium.com/items/421615-the-us-congress-should-increase-membership-to-better-represent-the-people
and
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/article1_analysis.htm.)
In conclusion, if we were to
increase the number of representatives, it may allow for greater
representation in our country and possibly illuminate the
possibility of
there being a tie in the electoral college. If anything, an increase
in representatives may help us avoid having exactly 269 electoral
points for both candidates. Just a thought.
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IOWA CAUCUS 2012
January 2008
IOWA
CAUCUS SPENDING
January 2007
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