A contingent election in the House occurs when no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes for president. The House then chooses the president, with each state delegation casting one vote; a candidate must win a majority of the states to be elected.
This is not a regular House vote: representatives vote by state rather than individually, so the size of a state’s delegation does not change its weight. The process is set out in the Constitution and can make the makeup and internal divisions of state delegations decisive.
| Decision | Chamber | Candidates considered | Voting rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | House of Representatives | Top 3 by electoral votes | One vote per state delegation |
| Vice president | Senate | Top 2 by electoral votes | Senate selects the winner |
| Trigger | Both chambers, separately | No candidate has an electoral-vote majority | Twelfth Amendment procedure |
- 538 electoral votes Total votes in the Electoral College
- 270 electoral votes Majority required to win the presidency
- 3 candidates Maximum number of presidential candidates considered by the House
- 2 candidates Number of vice-presidential candidates considered by the Senate
- 1825 Year in which the contingent-election process was implemented for each office
When does the House hold a contingent election?
The House holds a contingent election for president when no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes: at least 270 of the 538 votes. The Twelfth Amendment sets that threshold, so falling short of 270 triggers the House’s constitutional procedure rather than deciding the presidency by the national popular vote.
The vice presidency has a separate threshold
The Twelfth Amendment also provides for a contingent election if no vice-presidential candidate wins an electoral-vote majority. In that case, the Senate—not the House—chooses the vice president, using a separate process from the House’s presidential selection.
The two procedures are therefore triggered by the same failure to secure a majority but apply to different offices: the House chooses the president, and the Senate chooses the vice president. The constitutional threshold for each is a majority of 538 electoral votes, or 270.
How does the House vote state by state?
The House of Representatives chooses the president in a contingent election from the three presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes. Instead of counting 435 representatives’ votes separately, the House gives each state delegation one vote.
One state, one vote
Each state delegation must decide how to cast its single vote for president. This gives every state equal voting weight, regardless of population; the 435 representatives do not each add an individual vote to the final tally.
- Candidate pool: the three presidential candidates with the most electoral votes.
- State vote: one vote per state delegation, not one per representative.
- Winning threshold: votes from a majority of the states.
The majority-of-states threshold determines the winner: a candidate must secure support from more than half of the state delegations. The state-by-state method therefore makes the delegation’s internal decision consequential and gives population size no bearing on a state’s voting weight.
What role does the Senate play?
The Senate chooses the vice president in a contingent election; the House chooses the president. Under the Twelfth Amendment, senators select from the two vice-presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes, while the House selects the president from the top three presidential candidates.
The Senate’s vice-presidential ballot is separate from the House’s state-by-state presidential vote. The two chambers therefore decide different offices through independent processes, even though the Twelfth Amendment provides the framework for both.
Two chambers, two choices
- Senate: chooses the vice president from the top two vice-presidential candidates in electoral votes.
- House: chooses the president from the top three presidential candidates, with each state delegation casting one vote.
The trigger is the same for both contests: no candidate wins a majority of the 538 electoral votes, or 270. The contingent-election procedure has been used once for each office since the Twelfth Amendment was ratified.
How can the procedure affect voters and candidates?
Voters influence a contingent presidential election indirectly: their ballots determine the outcome in each state and, through that outcome, how the state’s electoral votes are cast; voters do not cast ballots in the House’s final choice. Under the Twelfth Amendment, a candidate needs 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win the presidency.
If no presidential candidate reaches 270 electoral votes, the House chooses the president from the top three electoral-vote candidates, with each state delegation casting one vote. That gives every state the same weight in this final choice, regardless of population; a state’s size does not give its delegation additional votes. For candidates, this means that winning electoral votes in the general election does not by itself guarantee the presidency if no one reaches the threshold.
The vice presidency is decided separately
The Senate chooses the vice president from the top two vice-presidential candidates, so the House and Senate make separate decisions about the two offices. The president and vice president could therefore be chosen by different chambers rather than as a single ticket. The procedure has been used once for each office since the Twelfth Amendment was ratified.
What are the limits of a contingent election?
A contingent election is not a second nationwide popular vote: if no candidate wins a majority of the 538 electoral votes, the House chooses the President from the top three electoral-vote candidates, while the Senate chooses the Vice President from the top two. The Twelfth Amendment sets the winning threshold at 270 electoral votes.
What the process does not do
- It does not return the presidential choice to the nationwide electorate. The House’s presidential ballot is counted by state delegation, not as an equal individual vote for every House member.
- It does not give the Senate the House’s three-candidate field. Senators choose the Vice President from the top two electoral-vote candidates.
- It does not replace the Electoral College with a fresh popular tally. The constitutional trigger is the failure of every candidate to reach 270 of 538 electoral votes.
The procedure is rare, but it remains part of the constitutional process: since the Twelfth Amendment was ratified, a contingent election has been implemented only once for each office, in 1825. That history does not remove the mechanism; if no presidential candidate reaches the required electoral-vote majority, the Constitution still assigns the choice to the House and Senate under their separate rules.
How does the House process differ from the Senate’s?
The House of Representatives chooses the president, while the Senate chooses the vice president; the key difference is that House members vote by state delegation, but senators vote individually. Both procedures apply when no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes under the Twelfth Amendment.
- President: The House chooses from the top three electoral-vote candidates. Each state delegation casts one vote, so the decision is made state by state rather than by counting every representative’s vote equally.
- Vice president: The Senate chooses from the top two electoral-vote candidates. Senators cast votes as individual members, rather than casting one vote for each state.
The Twelfth Amendment sets the trigger for both contests: a candidate must win a majority of electoral votes, currently 270 of 538. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the House and Senate handle separate decisions for the two offices; the House’s three-candidate field and the Senate’s two-candidate field are not interchangeable.
Questions readers ask
How many electoral votes are needed to avoid a contingent election?
Does each House member get one vote in a contingent election?
How many candidates can the House consider?
Who chooses the vice president in a contingent election?
Has the United States used this process before?
Key takeaways
- 270 of 538 electoral votes is the majority needed to win the presidency.
- The House chooses the president from the top three candidates, with one vote per state delegation.
- The Senate separately chooses the vice president from the top two candidates.
- The contingent-election procedure was implemented once for each office since ratification of the Twelfth Amendment, in 1825.
Sources
- everycrsreport.com — “The Electoral College: Frequently Asked Questions – EveryCRSReport.com”
- congress.gov — “Contingent Election of the President and Vice”
- Inyo County Elections — “How is the U.S. President Elected?”
- findlaw.com — “What Is the Contingent Election and Voting Process? – FindLaw”
- Constitution Center — “Interpretation: The Twelfth Amendment”
