The counting of votes for the US presidential election is underway. The main contest in this election is between Republican Party candidate and former President Donald Trump and Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris. To win this election, a candidate needs a majority of 270 out of a total of 538 electoral votes. Currently, Trump is leading with 247 electoral votes. If any candidate does not get 270 electoral votes, then contingent elections are held in the US. Contingent elections were held in the US about two years ago.
What is a contingent election? What happens if no one gets a majority?
First let us know what is an electoral vote? – Through the Electoral College, the people of America vote for the electors of their respective states. Through this, people indirectly elect their President and Vice President.
If we understand it in India, people elect an MLA or MP for their assembly or Lok Sabha seat and later the same MLA or MP elects the Chief Minister or Prime Minister. However, in the American context, the election process is a bit complicated.
In this way, the American people vote for the Electoral College to elect the President and Vice President. Later, these electors elect the President and Vice President. There are a total of 538 such electors in the whole of America. There is also a broad outline of where and how these 538 electors came from. Actually, there are 50 states in America, which have 535 electors based on their population and there are three more electors from the American capital Washington, DC (District of Columbia).
If we understand these 535 electoral votes apart from DC, then the total number of seats in the American Parliament is 535, out of which 435 are members of the House of Representatives (HOR) and 100 are members of the Senate.
If we understand from the example of India, the members of the House of Representatives are the MPs of the lower house Lok Sabha, while the members or senators of the upper house Senate are the Rajya Sabha MPs. According to the rules, every state will have at least one or more HORs according to the population, while there will be only two senators from each state. That is, there will be at least three electoral votes from every state in the election.
To win the presidential election, the candidates have to get a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538.
What will happen if the votes of the electors are equal?
If no candidate gets an absolute majority, then the House of Representatives elects the President through a ‘contingent election’. In this, the members of the House of Representatives vote for the President on the basis of the top three candidates. But this has happened only three times in the entire history of America and it has been about 200 years since the last time it happened.