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While I’m backing Biden because his views are a lot closer to mine than Trump’s and I find him an overall better human being than Trump, I would think picking Dr. Biden to be his running mate would be a mistake. Dr. Biden is an educator, not a politician. To the best of my knowledge, she has never entertained a thought of going into politics. It would be better for Biden to pick a sitting Senator (the Democrats haven’t won a Presidential election without a sitting Senator or VP since 1940). If it ends up one of the two Senators that are supposedly the finalists, Harris over Warren. I still would prefer Duckworth or Baldwin over Harris.Dr. Biden, should her husband win, will be First Lady, probably championing one or more of the causes she championed as Second Lady.It should be noted that in a close race (say one where a Biden/Biden ticket would have 271 electoral votes, the Trump/Pence ticket 267), we could very well end up with President Biden and Vice President Pence given the fact that Delaware’s three electors couldn’t vote for both Bidens.

The Constitution states that if the candidates for President and Vice President are from the same state, that state FORFEITS their electoral votes in the presidential election.What makes that pivotally important is that could swing the election, as it is the electoral votes that decide the election, NOT the popular vote.In 2000, Texas Governor George W. Bush ran against incumbent Vice President Al Gore. Bush had former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney head the selection committee for a VP running mate for Bush. In the end, Bush decided on Cheney himself, which posed an obstacle in immediate need of clearing.Bush and Cheney — CEO of Halliburton — BOTH lived in Dallas, the Governor dividing his time between Austin snd Dallas. As Texas residents, having both of them on the ballot would cost them Texas’ 32 electoral votes (the second largest electoral bloc in America), and all but guarantee the election for Gore. A LEGAL and ethical solution was needed, and FAST.Cheney moved his drivers license, auto registration, and car insurance, along with his voter registration to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he owned property, dating back to his days as Wyoming’s at-large congressman. Three days later, he was announced as Bush’s running mate, and that was completely fortuitous in its timing.As the election turned out, Wyoming’s three electoral votes made the DIFFERENCE in the election that year. The final electoral count was 271–267, the closest margin ever, a 1-vote win, with 270 needed to win.The hues and cries went up. I heard the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth from the whiners. ‘Selected, not elected’ crap from SCOTUS’ 5–4 ruling on Gore v. Bush.A key fact those on the Left keep forgetting: Had Al Gore not ‘pooched’ his chance and sent Fifi into orbit by LOSING HIS HOME STATE OF TENNESSEE — and its 11 electoral votes — he would’ve had 278 electoral votes that would’ve put him OVER THE TOP, and into the White House, without the need for Florida, which an independent voter recount for all of Florida showed Bush to have won by 537 votes 🗳.The moral of this story: Thank God for small favors.

There has only been one electoral vote tie in the history of presidential elections. This was the election of 1800. At that point in time, electors only cast votes for President, so whoever came in second became Vice President. The elections of 1796 and 1800 were the primary reasons for the 12th Amendment, which separated the offices so electors vote for President and for Vice President. Because there are an even number of electoral votes being cast, a tie (269–269) is mathematically possible, but highly improbable.What has happened since the ratification of the 12th Amendment is that one candidate failed to get a majority of the electoral vote rather than the electoral vote being tied. This, too, is mathematically possible (failing to get 270 electoral votes), but is probable mostly when there is a strong third party running or when there are a large number of faithless electors. The election of 1836 is probably a good example of the latter and the election of 1824 is a good example of the former.Notice that I’m having to go back almost 200 years to find examples? The two-party dominant system, coupled with the winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes, makes it highly unlikely that a major-party candidate will fail to cross that magic 270-vote threshold. But let’s assume that we face a situation where it’s a close race so one candidate gets 267 electoral votes, a second candidate gets 268 electoral votes, and one of the 3-vote states (pick on Vermont, I guess) goes to a third party candidate.Since no candidate has a majority, the House of Representatives will hold a contingent election, probably on January 6. Each state gets one vote in the House and it’s highly likely that each state will vote for whichever candidate is from the majority party of its House delegation. Assuming that none of those majorities change as a result of the November election (probable for 2020), the Republicans would be the majority in 26 of the 50 House delegations, so the Republican candidate would win the contingent election on the first ballot.The fly in the ointment is the Senate. Unlike the House, which will vote by state, the Senate is responsible for choosing the Vice President and each Senator gets one vote. An absolute majority (51 votes) is necessary to select a Vice President and the sitting VP does not break ties, so it’s really going to come down to a couple of questions.The first is whether the majority party in the Senate changes as a result of the November election and a change in the majority party does seem probable for 2020. If it does not, then a Republican Vice President is pretty much a done deal. If it does, then it’s entirely possible that you could see a repeat of the 1796 election where you have a President from one party and a Vice President from the other.The second question goes to how civil an opposing-party majority wants to be. It is possible that the Senate selects a VP which conforms to the results of the House’s contingent election. In a more civil political climate, I could see that as the more likely outcome. In today’s political climate, sticking the opposing-party President with a majority-party Vice President would be about par for the course, so it’s possible that a contingent House election produces a President Trump and the Senate’s contingent election produces a Vice President Harris.