With just one week left until the 2024 presidential election, anticipation over the results of the electoral college is high across the country, with polls showing a neck-and-neck race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
While voters will anxiously be awaiting results to see which candidate earned a majority of the Electoral College's electoral votes, there is no such guarantee that a candidate will reach that mark.
There are a total of 538 electoral votes at stake in the 2024 presidential election, with the votes distributed among the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. based on population.
A presidential candidate must receive 270 electoral votes in order to win the election, though it is possible that both major candidates receive 269 electoral votes each, meaning no candidate secures a victory by earning a majority of electoral votes.
Though the scenario has never occurred in a U.S. presidential election, there is a procedure of events that would follow if the rare outcome were to occur. Here's what to know:
What happens if there's an Electoral College tie?
In the event of a 269-269 electoral college tie, the U.S. Senate votes to elect the Vice President, while the U.S. House of Representatives votes to elect the President, in accordance with Article Two, Section One, Clause Three in the U.S. Constitution.
The 12th Amendment specifies that U.S. Representatives must choose between one of the top three presidential candidates in the electoral vote count, while U.S. Senators must choose between one of the top two vice presidential candidates in the electoral vote count.
While the electoral votes connected to each state determine the overall winner of the election and will be shown on election night maps, only the popular vote will have taken place by the time polls close on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
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Each candidate has a slate of presidential electors in each state, who will then convene in state capitals and Washington, D.C. on Dec. 17 to officially cast their electoral votes.
Those electoral votes will then be counted by a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2025.
While electors have pledged to vote for the candidates they are electors for, there have been numerous instances of "faithless electors" in presidential election history - when a pledged elector votes for a candidate other than the one they pledged to vote for.
Though most previous instances of faithless electors have proven to be inconsequential, a prospective electoral college tie, or even a race with a thin electoral margin, would lead to heightened attention on what is normally a procedural step in the electoral process.
Despite the House of Representatives having 435 members, each state's delegation to the legislative body would vote for a presidential candidate "en bloc," meaning representatives from a given state would have to decide on a single candidate.
As each state has two U.S. Senators in their delegation, senators would cast their votes for Vice President individually.
The contingent election would take place on Jan. 6, 2025, three days after the incoming Congress elected to office in the November general elections are slated to take office.
Therefore, the results of the congressional elections would directly impact the outcome of the presidential election in the event of a contingent election taking place.
The elected President and Vice President will be inaugurated into office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Has a contingent election ever taken place?
Yes, but not in modern American history.
A contingent election determined the winner of the presidential election on two occasions in U.S. history - 1800 and 1824.
In 1800, candidates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were tied in the electoral vote tally, triggering a contingent election in 1801 by the outgoing congress.
As the election happened prior to the passage of the 12th Amendment, there was no separate procedure for electing a President and Vice President.
Jefferson would win the contingent election, with the backing of 10 state's House delegations, according to Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas.
A contingent election was held in 1825 due to no candidate holding a majority of electoral votes in the 1824 presidential election, even though Andrew Jackson received more electoral votes than any other candidate.
Jackson was listed as a candidate in the contingent election alongside John Quincy Adams and William H. Crawford, who were the top three electoral vote recipients in the election.
Despite Jackson winning more electoral and popular votes than any other candidate, Adams was victorious in the contingent election with the backing of 13 states' House delegations.
Additionally, a contingent election determined the Vice President after the 1836 presidential election, when Virginia's electors refused to vote for President Martin Van Buren's running mate, Richard Mentor Johnson. Johnson was later elected in the contingent election.
When was the last time there was a faithless elector?
Though the votes have not had an impact on the result of the overall Electoral College vote, there have been multiple instances of faithless electors in recent presidential elections.
The most recent occurrence of faithless electors casting Electoral College votes was in 2016, when multiple electors pledged to both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton voted for other candidates when casting their ballots.
Two Republican faithless electors in Texas broke away from Trump, with one elector voting for 2016 Republican primary candidate John Kasich as President and fellow GOP presidential primary candidate Carly Fiorina as Vice President. The other faithless Texas elector voted for former presidential candidate and Congressman Ron Paul for President while voting for Mike Pence for Vice President, as pledged.
Five Democratic electors across the country broke from Clinton, four of whom were pledged to vote for Clinton in Washington State, with the other elector pledged to cast their ballot for Clinton in Hawaii.
Three of the four faithless electors in Washington voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, for President, though each elector chose a different Vice President. Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Washington U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell and Maine U.S. Senator Susan Collins, also a Republican received the Vice Presidential votes.
The other Washington faithless elector voted for environmental activist Faith Spotted Eagle for President, while casting a vote for Minnesota environmental activist Winona LaDuke as Vice President.
The Hawaii faithless elector voted for 2016 Democratic presidential primary candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders for President, while voting for Warren as Vice President.
In 2004, one faithless elector in Minnesota voted for Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards for both President and Vice President.
In 2000, one Democratic elector pledged to vote for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman in Washington, D.C. abstained from voting.
