CNN —With two presidential candidates fighting over a mere 538 Electoral College votes, a tie scenario is more than possible. Those individual, competitive electoral votes in Maine and Nebraska become hugely consequential in potential tie scenarios. If there’s a 269-269 tie, or if a third party or independent candidate wins electoral votes and keeps a candidate from reaching an Electoral College majority of 270, the next step is the same. Has a contingent election happened in the years since the tied election of 1800? In 1876, when there was a contested outcome, the contingent election system was bypassed.

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Persons: Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, ”, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, there’s, It’s, it’s, Mike Johnson, –, Harris, Federalist John Adams, Jefferson, Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Robert M, Johnson, Martin Van Buren, South Carolina –, Republican Rutherford B, Hayes, Samuel Tilden Organizations: CNN, Electoral, Democratic, Republicans, Win, Electoral College, Congressional Research Service, CRS, Senate, Democrat, Democrats, Republican, Trump, Federalists, Jefferson’s Democratic, Federalist Locations: Wisconsin , Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Maine, California, Texas, Delaware, Wyoming, Washington, DC, Minnesota, North Carolina, – Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, Oregon