00:00Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are in a dead heat in national polls and the seven swing states,
00:07less than a week before Election Day.
00:09But there's a slim chance of it ending in an Electoral College tie between the two candidates, and in the rare event
00:16there is one, it would likely lead to Trump becoming president.
00:20If the election ends in a tie with Trump and Harris receiving 269 electoral votes each,
00:25the House would vote to select the next president, and the Senate would pick the vice president, with the House convening on January 6th, 2025.
00:35Instead of the House holding a standard vote,
00:37each state delegation would pick a single candidate between the three who received the most electoral votes,
00:43per rules laid out in the 12th Amendment of the Constitution,
00:46meaning large states like California and Texas have as much sway as states like Wyoming.
00:53The 50 delegations would almost certainly vote along party lines,
00:56which would likely give Republicans the edge as they're favored to control the majority of state delegations after Election Day.
01:03The Senate, which is forecasted to flip to Republican control, would then vote to elect the vice president, who would need 51 votes to win.
01:11If a candidate for president is unable to secure votes from 26 delegations before Inauguration Day on January 20th,
01:18and the Senate has already selected a vice president, that person would become acting president until the House vote is settled.
01:26A 269-269 electoral college tie is considered highly unlikely.
01:33538 predicts a 1-in-300 chance.
01:36There hasn't been an electoral college tie since 1800, in the race between former President Thomas Jefferson and incumbent President John Adams,
01:44when Congress took 36 ballots to elect Jefferson.
01:48For more on this story, check out Sarah Dorn's article in the link in the description.
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