What if there is a tie?

There are few battle ground states that are going to decide the Presidential Election, but there is the possibility of an Electoral College tie. If that happens, then the presidental election falls to the US House of Representatives and the vice presidental election to the Senate.

The only time in US History that a tie occurred was the election of 1824. John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson tied in the Electoral College. Both candidates were members of the Democratic-Republican Party. February 9th, 1825 the House elected John Quincy Adams to the Presidency. The fight in the House led a split in the Democratic-Republican Party. The result was the formation of the current Democratic Party led by Andrew Jackson and the National Republican Party led by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay.

But what if there was a tie today? If Obama wins Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa but loses Virginia, New Hampshire, Florida and Ohio to McCain, both candidates would have 269 electoral votes.

The House is currently controlled by the Democrat Party and that leads most to believe that the house would vote for Obama, but the constitution forces each state vote as a delegation. Each state only gets one vote. 27 state of delegations that are Democrat majority, 21 are Republican and 2 state are equal.

But there is a catch. Some states will have voters support one parties candidate, while the congressional delegation is a majority of the other candidates party. West Virginia while most likely be one of those states. The polls show McCain the likely winner in WV, but Rahall and Mollohan will be able to out vote Capito to give the state to Obama. It will be a political blood bath. Mollohan and Rahall will be under termendous pressure from the Democratic Party to case their votes for Obama, while the people of West Virginia will be pushing them to vote for McCain. There choices could very well decide the outcome of the 2010 WV Congressional Elections for both.

It gets better. The Senate picks the Vice President. The Senate is near evenly split and Joe Liberman caucases with the Democrats, but is supporting McCain-Palin. The Senate could very easily pick Palin as the Vice President and if they do and the House has not decided, then she would be come president until the House decides. President Bush could be succeded by President Palin, only to be succeded by President Obama shortly after. It is possible that we end up with Obama as President and Palin as Vice President. If the House and Senate don't decide by Jan. 20th, 2008, then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi becomes President until a decision is made.

Hold on it could be a wild ride.