Pelosi quietly ‘rallying’ Dems to force Trump from White House in case electoral college is tied
THE Speaker of the House is preparing for the possibility that neither Donald Trump or Joe Biden will secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential election.
The only way to avoid sending the election results to the Supreme Court or to Congress is with an uncontested Electoral College win, which would be determined by a high voter turnout.
In the event of an Electoral College tie, each of the 50 state delegations would get one vote, which is decided by an internal tally of each lawmaker in that designation.
That means a single seat could determine whether a delegation is Democratic or Republican.
Under this high-stakes scenario, the presidency could be decided by the party that has more delegates in the chamber.
Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations to the Democrats’ 22 — with Pennsylvania split evenly and Michigan a 7-6 plurality for Democrats, with a 14th seat held by independent Justin Amash.
In a letter to House Democrats on Sunday, Nancy Pelosi reminded them of the possibility of this scenario, which hasn’t happened since 1876, Politico reports.
“The Constitution says that a candidate must receive a majority of the state delegations to win,” the speaker wrote.
“We must achieve that majority of delegations or keep the Republicans from doing so.”
According to the report, Pelosi has expressed worries about this rare possibility for weeks.
An Electoral College stalemate would see the Democrats push harder to turn particularly vulnerable House races in traditionally red states to blue. Resources are expected to be deployed to contests in Montana and Alaska – typically Republican turf but where Democrats have been competitive statewide.
In these states, Democratic victories could flip an entire delegation with a single upset House victory.
Trump recently addressed the obscure constitutional resolution to a deadlocked Electoral College.
“And I don’t want to end up in the Supreme Court and I don’t want to go back to Congress either, even though we have an advantage if we go back to Congress — does everyone understand that?” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“I think it’s 26 to 22 or something because it’s counted one vote per state, so we actually have an advantage. Oh, they’re going to be thrilled to hear that.”
Under the Constitution, the winner of the presidential election isn’t officially chosen until Congress certifies the Electoral College vote total on January 6, 2021. That vote comes several days after the newly elected Congress is sworn in, meaning the delegation totals will change to reflect the winners of House races in November.
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If neither Biden nor Trump has the 270 electoral votes required to win, the newly seated House delegations will then cast votes to determine a winner. States whose delegations reach a tie vote are not counted.
There could be extended legal challenges over declaring victors in House races, as national party leaders and their legal teams dive headlong into the results for individual races at the county or even precinct level, Politico reports.