The American National Interest has asked what the presidential race will lead to in the United States if any of the Democratic candidates, Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump, are unable to resolve the fight in his favor in the electoral college.
The electoral college in the American political system is a constitutional electoral body consisting of 538 voters representing 50 states and undertakes the task of electing the president and vice president of the country after the end of the popular vote, and in order for a candidate to win the position of president or vice president, he must obtain a majority (at least 270) of the votes. Electoral for the complex.
The results so far indicate that Joe Biden received 257 votes from the compound votes, which is only 13 votes away from what he needs to be the next president of the United States.
While President Donald Trump comes directly behind him with 239 votes after winning the support of crucial states, including the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota, while Joe Jørgensen, the candidate for the Libertarian Party, unexpectedly received strong support from the compound voters and won 69 votes.
If none of the candidates receives 270 votes from the electoral college, members of the House of Representatives will have to choose between the three candidates who received the highest votes in the electoral college.
However, this "emergency vote" in Parliament differs from the usual vote on bills, whereby the elected representatives vote for each state as one block and one vote, and the winning candidate must obtain a simple majority of the states' votes, that is, the votes of at least 26 of the 50 states .
The US Constitution initially provided in its second article on this mechanism, and it was revised through the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, whereby the House of Representatives was granted convening power to determine the official results of the elections.
The United States has not seen this scenario since the beginning of the 19th century, specifically in the presidential elections in 1824, when the electoral college votes were divided among 4 candidates: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay.
Although Jackson received the highest votes in the popular vote and in the Electoral College, he did not obtain an absolute majority in the council, and therefore he was not declared president, but Quincy Adams won after an emergency vote in the House of Representatives.
Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 through the electoral college votes (Reuters)
Trump and Clinton
Incumbent President Donald Trump also beat his rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections through the same mechanism, after both of them mobilized broad support across the country.
On Election Day, Trump won 306 of the electoral college votes, while Clinton got only 232 votes despite her progress in the popular vote, so Trump won the presidency, especially thanks to the support of swing states, including Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The National Interest confirms that despite some expectations that favors Biden winning the popular vote and the majority of the electoral college votes, especially in light of opinion polls that give him remarkable progress and in light of Trump's failure to deal with the Corona crisis, most Americans are still skeptical about the ability of the former vice president to Dealing with several files, the most important of which is the economy.
The site adds that due to the severe state of party polarization, neither Trump nor Biden is likely to win the presidency, but the current "feverish" and "competitive" presidential race makes it difficult to predict any results.