Subtitles (51)
0:01The United States, picks its president with
the Electoral College, 538 votes distributed
0:05by population (mostly) to the 50 States and
DC.
0:09To become president you need to win a majority
of those votes.
0:12But, 538 is an even number, so what happens
when the race for president is tied?
0:18Don't worry, there's an 18th century solution
to the problem: if the Electoral College is
0:22tied, the House of Representatives breaks
that tie.
0:25As the name implies, the House is filled with
representatives from each of the states.
0:29The more people in a state, the more Representatives
it has and their are 435 in total -- thankfully
0:35an odd number and guaranteed tie breaker...
except there's a catch: each representative
0:40doesn't get one vote, it's each *State* that
gets one vote.
0:43So, Florida's 27 representatives have to decided
amongst themselves who to support before casting
0:48Florida's one vote to help break the tie.
0:51Meanwhile, thinly-populated Alaska's sole
representative, has only to consult himself
0:56before casting Alaska's vote.
0:58This is an incredibly disproportionate system
because just ten states, California, Texas,
1:03New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, and North Carolina
1:06contain more than half the population of the
United States but get only 20% of the votes
1:11if the race for president is tied and the
other 40 states with less than half the population
1:15get 80% of the votes.
1:17While an exact tie is unlikely, this system
is also used if they're more than two candidates
1:22for president and none of them gets a majority
in the Electoral College.
1:26Which is exactly what happened when four candidates
ran for president in 1824.
1:30Andrew Jackson got the most votes from Americans
and the most votes in the Electoral College,
1:34but not a majority, so the race was turned
over to the House of Representatives voting
1:39as states who picked John Quiny Adams instead.
1:42In a modern America with more states a three-way
race can have horrifically disproportionate
1:47results: consider a third-party candidate
who the loves the small states and who the
1:51small states love in return.
1:52He gets the fewest Electoral College votes,
but enough to ensure that neither of the two
1:56more popular candidates get a majority so
now the House decides the winner -- and those
2:0026 smallest states representing just 17% of
the population can pick their man as president
2:05even though 83% of Americans didn't vote for
him.
2:08It's unlikely, but it really shouldn't even
be possible.
2:12Anyway, all this talk of presidents has left
the Vice President unmentioned: a reasonable
2:16person might assume, just comes along with
the President, but no.
2:20When there's a tie the *Senate* independently
picks the Vice President so the United States,
2:25could end up with a President from one party
and with a Vice President from the another,
2:29which might make for some very uncomfortable
meetings.
2:32But even this crazy system for resolving a
tie isn't guaranteed to work because are 100
2:37members of the senate and in the House of
Representatives they're forced to vote as
2:4150 states and many of those states have10
or 8 representatives making the whole system
2:46tie-tackular with all of those even numbers.
2:49So if the House can't pick the president but
the Senate has picked the Vice President then
2:52the Vice President becomes acting president
until the House can make up its mind.
2:56But if neither the House can pick the president
nor the Senate can decide the Vice President
3:00then the speaker of the House becomes president
until either branch of congress picks *someone*.
3:05So this systems is how the United States would
resolve a tied race for president, though
3:09it might be faster (and more fair) to just
flip a coin.
3:25Of course you could just get rid of the electoral
college, and thus this whole crazy system,
3:29and instead have a national vote, perhaps
even with something fancy like preferential
3:33voting, maybe that's just a crazy idea.
