[KarlInOhio]

Romney 269 — enough for a tie (and an almost inevitable victory in the House of Representatives, where the 50 state delegations would each cast one vote to determine the president).

Imagine Romney as President but the VP remains Slow Joe, now without adult supervision. It would almost be worth it for the entertainment value alone.

[Verginius Rufus]

It would be a tie only if all the votes they are leaving out go to Obama. With 538 electoral votes a 269-269 tie is possible...but in that case expect Obama's people to bribe or blackmail their way to get the 270th elector.

If there was a tie for Vice President, the Senate would choose the new Vice President--so it is important that the Republicans get a majority in the Senate in the November 2012 election. The Senators would vote as individuals. That has happened only once before, in 1837.

[HamiltonJay]

Obama won’t be anywhere near 243 on election day.

The EC college will not be as blow out as other elections lost by such a large popular vote margin as Obama’s loss will be because of population distribution differences these days, but he has at most a 42-43% popular vote total, and that’s if he runs a perfect campaign.... and have you seen his campaign? Its anything but perfect.

Reality is, he keeps going the way he is going, he won’t hit 40% of the popular vote.

[scrabblehack]

I’ve occasionally wondered what might happen — if there were a tie (or no candidate got a majority in the electoral college) —

Suppose no party controlled 26 out of 50 delegations. (With a number of states having 2 representatives, one of each party, this is quite possible). A deadlock in the House is quite possible.

A deadlock in the Senate is not nearly so likely. So, would the VP become President? If so, could he name his successor (as VP)? This would require only a majority vote of both houses, rather than a majority of delegations.

In short, Amendment XXV was poorly crafted. I’m surprised it didn’t anticipate a conflict like that.