Trump doesn’t have to get 270 votes.
He only needs a majority of the Electoral votes cast.
Read your Constitution.
A plurality in a 3 way or more race.............
Ummm, you might want to read the 12th Amendment.
It is not a majority of the votes cast. The section reads:
....The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed....
It is possible that appointed means those appointed by the states and if one or more states did not certify or send in their votes, then yes, your condition would be true.
However, I dont’ think that will be an issue now. And yes or no, either way it is sure to draw a SCOTUS case.
Majority of whole electors appointed.
This became a potential issue in bush v. gore.
The Bush people thought it would have to be 270, regardless.
Too bad it has to come down to all this. How all this appears to be accounted for in the Constitution, makes these founders look even more like geniuses.
I wonder how much more bizarre this can get.