What happens if there is a tie in the Electoral College? Here’s what you should know as Trump and Harris face off

The election was already full of sensational and historically unusual events. This fall, another possible scenario is emerging: the “conditional election” of the president and vice president, which would occur if no one could obtain the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential election.

That hasn’t happened in modern times, but there are some conceivable (if unlikely) paths on the Electoral College map that could lead to former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris ending the race in a 269-vote tie.

Some of those scenarios include Republicans winning all of Nebraska’s votes, an uphill battle since the state distributes one vote to the winner of each of its congressional districts and Harris is favored to win in the Omaha area’s 2nd District. (That’s why Republicans briefly and unsuccessfully tried to change Nebraska’s rules and make it a winner-take-all state.) And a third-party candidate is much less likely to win electoral votes and prevent someone else from taking the majority get or that unbelieving voters will refuse to support a candidate, with the same end result.

In the event of a tie, Congress would decide the next president.

While the process would be highly contentious and historic, Congress has an established process for selecting a president in this scenario, which would undoubtedly come after a series of court challenges in key states aimed at challenging the election results there.

This is how it would work.

“Each state, regardless of population, casts a single vote for president in a random election,” according to the Congressional Research Service. That means the House group from each state would choose from among the three candidates with the most Electoral College voters, and the candidate with the support of a majority of the states would win.

The newly elected Congress, which takes office in January, would vote in this scenario. So the results of the congressional elections would be of great importance.

Republicans have majority control of 26 state delegations, while Democrats have majority control of 22 delegations and two states (Minnesota and North Carolina) are tied. Members of Congress would not be required to vote for their party’s nominee, but they would certainly face enormous pressure to do so.

Although Washington, DC has three electoral votes in the presidential election, it would have no vote in the House of Representatives in a contingency election because it is not a state.

In a contingent election, the vice president is elected by a full vote of the Senate, with each senator casting his or her own vote for one of the two vice presidential candidates with the most electoral votes.