Monday, May 23, 2016

Politically Speaking...

I know! I know!
I'm supposed to be avoiding the political posts!

But today's is more of a political "What if...?" post.

I'm wondering why none of the big polling organizations has conducted a three candidate poll.
What if the far right decided to run a third party or independent candidate?
What if Bernie Sanders ran as an independent?

Could a third candidate manage 270 electoral votes?
Could a third candidate manage enough electoral votes to keep either party's candidate from getting 270 electoral votes?

And if no candidate for POTUS receives a majority of the electoral votes (270), the House of Representatives would vote from the top two (or three at most) candidates for the President!

Wow!

By the way--if you are wondering, it would be the sitting House (not the newly elected House) that would make this vote. The Electoral College meets to vote on the first Wednesday after the second Monday of December (Dec 14th, this year) to vote and I'm pretty sure that the current House would not take the current Senate's stance and let the people decide by waiting until the newly elected House takes their seats in Congress.

So let's just say that both Bernie Sanders and John Kasich decide to run as independent candidates.
If Kasich only wins in Ohio (18 electoral votes), Sanders only wins in Vermont (3 electoral votes), and Clinton and Trump split the remaining states so that neither of them receives 270 electoral votes; then the House of Representatives could choose to elect John Kasich as our new President -- a man that won only one state and had a minuscule amount of the total popular vote!

Just wondering...

John <><

3 comments:

eViL pOp TaRt said...

When things don't go in the regular fashion, some mischief may happen!

Mike said...

That's just as scary as Trump.

John A Hill said...

It could even be a case where:

*Trump wins one state
*Clinton and Sanders split the remaining votes with neither getting 270
*GOP loses control of the House and Senate

...and a current GOP majority in the House gets to pick the next president!