Politics with Paul Podcast #3 - The Electoral College and Contingent Elections
A presidential candidate must win a majority of the Electoral College (270+ electoral votes out of 538) to win the presidency. But what happens if no candidate reaches that threshold? That's where contingent elections come in. Today, I talk about how the Electoral College has changed over time, how contingent elections work, and one way 2024 could become a contingent election (though the possibility is unlikely). Today's random question: Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Key Points
- A presidential candidate needs a majority of Electoral College votes to win the presidency (270 out of 538 total), and this candidate usually, but not always, wins the popular vote.
- When no presidential candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, we have a contingent election where the US House decides the winner. However, each state's delegation casts a single vote instead of each individual representative casting one.
- The Electoral College has undergone major changes over the years, including several US Constitutional Amendments and significant shifts in some states' total electoral votes.
- It's been 200 years since our last contingent election, and 2024 is unlikely to be one. However, one way it could happen is discussed in the episode.
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Transcript
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