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Home › Forums › Other › OT: Predictions for 2016 Presidential Election › zk wrote:Trump vs. Sanders

January 29, 2016 at 7:30 AM #793661
livinincali
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[quote=zk]Trump vs. Sanders could happen. And if it does, there’s a good chance it would be Trump vs. Sanders vs. Bloomberg. I was going to say that I think that, unlike any 3rd party candidate in recent history, he’d have a decent chance of winning. Then I read the about the twelfth amendment, which includes this:

The person having the greatest number of [electoral] votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote…

Am I reading that wrong? If no candidate gets a majority of electoral votes, than it no longer matters who the people voted for? And even if the representatives from each state were conscientious enough to vote for the candidate who won their state’s popular vote, Wyoming and Alaska and Alabama added up would count the same as California, New York, and Texas added up?

Please tell me I’m reading that wrong.[/quote]

This is completely correct. If nobody gets the 270 majority of electoral votes then the house of representative delegation for each each gets 1 vote for the president. Interestingly enough the Senate elects the Vice President by the same method if this were to happen. The constitution was created with strong protections for state rights and equal treatment so it doesn’t surprise me that each state would get an equal vote in process. We really haven’t changed much about the system in the past 100+ years.

I could certainly see the possibility of this happening with a Bloomberg/Sanders/Trump election. Bloomberg and Sanders split the various blue states and Trump taking most of the Red States. Of course in that scenario Trump might actually win pluralities in some solidly blue states. Take a state like CA. Republicans usually take about 35-40% of the vote here but if democrats split equally between Sanders and Bloomberg here you could end up with Trump wining a plurality. I have no idea how something like that might split out.