LogFAQs > #922808080

By the way, we've tried a very very similar thing before. In 1876 three Southern states submitted 2 sets of electoral votes to Congress. If the Republican won all of the electoral votes from the 3 states, he would win the presidency by 1 electoral vote, whereas if the Democrat got a single electoral vote from any of the 3 states, he would win. There was no doubt that the Democrat had won the popular vote comfortably.

Congress is charged with counting the electoral votes by the Constitution. To resolve the impasse, Congress came up with a plan very similar to Buttigieg's. The Republicans got to appoint 5 commissioners, the Democrats got to appoint 5 commissioners, and 5 commissioners were chosen from the ranks of active Supreme Court justices, who supposedly would be non-partisan.

The commission voted 8-7 to accept the entire slate of Republican electoral votes, for all 3 of the contested states. Each vote was 100% party line. The extra Republican Supreme Court justice made the difference. And Rutherford B. Hayes was elected as President by an electoral vote of 185 to 184.
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September 1, 2003; November 4, 2007; September 2, 2013
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