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Congress Could Decide Presidential Election on a One-State-One-Vote Basis

If no candidate receives 270 of the 538 electoral votes on Election Day, the U.S. House of Representatives chooses the President with each state having one vote.

Thus, the loser of the national popular vote could win the presidency in this process.

In the six presidential elections of the 2000s, there have been numerous politically plausible combinations of states that could have produced a 269–269 tie in the Electoral College. Fortunately, no tie ever occurred.

The map shows a politically plausible combination of states that would produce a a 269–269 tie in 2024. The tie would occur if Harris carried the 3 closely divided battleground states in the North (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin), and if Trump carried the 4 battleground states in the South (Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada) as well the closely divided congressional districts in Maine and Nebraska.

In that case, the presidential election would be thrown into the newly elected U.S. House of Representatives, with each state casting one vote. The District of Columbia would have no vote.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact guarantees that one candidate will always receive a majority in the Electoral College, and therefore a presidential election will never be thrown into Congress.

NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE IS A BETTER WAY

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Compact will take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes (270 of 538). At that time, the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will get all the electoral votes from all of the enacting states. That is, the candidate receiving the most popular votes nationwide will be guaranteed enough electoral votes to become President.

The Compact has already been enacted into law by 18 jurisdictions, including 6 small states (DC, DE, HI, ME, RI, VT), 9 medium-sized states (CO, CT, MD, MA, MN, NJ, NM, OR, WA), and 3 big states (CA, IL, NY). These jurisdictions have 209 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the Compact.

The Compact has also passed one legislative chamber in 7 additional states with 74 electoral votes (AR, AZ, MI, NC, NV, OK, VA). Over 3,800 state legislators have sponsored or cast a recorded vote in favor of it.

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