US Elections 2024: What happens if Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris battle ends in tie?

The highly anticipated poll battle between billionaire Donald J Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidential position in the United States is scheduled for November 5, 2024. With 538 electoral up for grabs, the winner who claims 270 or more in upcoming elections will be next president.

Recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threw his support behind former President and Republican candidate Trump after suspending his troubled independent campaign for president, saying that he was withdrawing his name from the ballot in battleground states. With the withdrawl from White House bid, two parties will be dominating the US system.

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What happens if there is a tie?
Ties in US presidential elections are rare, as in the long history of the nation, it has happened once in 1824 when four candidates split the electoral vote, denying any one of them a majority. Andrew Jackson lost the contingent election to John Quincy Adams.

As laid down in 12th Amendment, the first official duty of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of US lawmakers, is to select the next president where each state just gets one vote. The delegation of representatives from each state decides how their state will vote.

When the House is choosing the new president, the Senate picks the new vice president. Each of the 100 senators gets one vote, with a simple majority of 51 senators required to select the vice president.

In the event of a tie in the selection of the president, the vice president-elect will be serving as acting president until the deadlock is conculded. This means that the House has to keep voting until the tie is broken.

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If the Senate fails to break a 50-50 tie for vice president too, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 specifies that the Speaker of the House will serve as acting president until tie votes in both the House and Senate have been broken.

(with agency inputs)