As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris engage in a tight race, What happens if it ends in a tie?

The US Presidential battle between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, a Republican, remains closely contested. While the prospects of a tie in this election are extremely remote, technically speaking, it is possible. In fact, there is precedence of a tie in American history.

In the US system, the president is indirectly elected based on the popular vote. Therefore, the winner is decided by the Electoral College, which is made up of 538 electors. The states get the same number of electors as the total it holds in Congress, one for each member in the House and two for every senator. It is considered that one should have garnered at least 270 electoral votes to be declared a winner of the presidency.

However, in the event that the Electoral College votes were to tie at 269-269, Congress would decide. According to the U.S. Constitution, the newly-elected House of Representatives shall then elect the president while the Senate shall elect the vice president in case of a tie.

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It would be by a vote within each state’s delegation, on who to select. A candidate had to win a majority; that is at least 26 delegations out of the 50 states. The House had to establish rule amendments with detailed instructions on the election process.

It was not the first such occurrence. In the 1800 election, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each tallied 73 electoral votes; it was left to the House of Representatives to settle, which elected Jefferson to succeed incumbent President John Adams.

Although a tie in the Electoral College is extremely rare, there is a clear constitutional mechanism for resolution: ensuring that the House elects the president and the Senate elects the vice president.

Both the Republicans and Democrats have run extremely aggressive and polarising campaigns targeting each other in every worst way possible. The venom and hate present in American politics at the moment is threatening to drive permanent fissures into the society at large. Whether it is Donald Trump or Kamala Harris whoever ends up in power, will not be accepted by the other as their President. How much damage this turmoil will cause to the USA in the long run, only time will tell.