The 1968 election was a three-way race between Richard Nixon (Republican), Hubert Humphrey (Democratic) and George Wallace (American Independent). OTL's result was a massive electoral victory for Nixon -- but he only won 43.4% of the popular vote, and the nationwide popular vote margin between him & Humphrey was only 0.7%. A lot of the states Nixon won were very close races, which means that it's entirely possible that Nixon would fall short of the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the race -- in which case, the election would be thrown to Congress.
Now, the thing about when an election gets thrown to Congress is that the House of Representatives votes in the President -- but each state's delegation gets only one vote between them, no matter how large the state is. Thus if a state delegation is evenly split down the middle, they'd probably have to abstain. So, having looked at the makeup of the 91st United States Congress, I think I can see what the first ballot would look like:
Richard Nixon (Republican) -- 19 states
Hubert Humphrey (Democratic) -- 18 states
George Wallace (American Independent) -- 8 states
[tied] -- 5 states
(The votes for George Wallace are the Democrat-dominated delegations for states where the American Independent Party outpolled the Democratic Party.)
So my question is this: how does this get resolved? Obviously, the first ballot is a deadlock as nobody gets the necessary 26 states' votes to win. But the real question is, on subsequent ballots, what do Wallace's supporters do? Do they eventually cave into party unity and vote for Humphrey, or do they break ranks entirely and vote for Nixon?
(Incidentally, the Senate was majority Democratic, which means that Edmund Muskie easily becomes Vice-President-elect. That means that if the House of Representatives isn't done balloting by Inauguration Day 1969, the country gets Acting President Muskie until they do finally pick a winner.)
Now, the thing about when an election gets thrown to Congress is that the House of Representatives votes in the President -- but each state's delegation gets only one vote between them, no matter how large the state is. Thus if a state delegation is evenly split down the middle, they'd probably have to abstain. So, having looked at the makeup of the 91st United States Congress, I think I can see what the first ballot would look like:
Richard Nixon (Republican) -- 19 states
Hubert Humphrey (Democratic) -- 18 states
George Wallace (American Independent) -- 8 states
[tied] -- 5 states
(The votes for George Wallace are the Democrat-dominated delegations for states where the American Independent Party outpolled the Democratic Party.)
So my question is this: how does this get resolved? Obviously, the first ballot is a deadlock as nobody gets the necessary 26 states' votes to win. But the real question is, on subsequent ballots, what do Wallace's supporters do? Do they eventually cave into party unity and vote for Humphrey, or do they break ranks entirely and vote for Nixon?
(Incidentally, the Senate was majority Democratic, which means that Edmund Muskie easily becomes Vice-President-elect. That means that if the House of Representatives isn't done balloting by Inauguration Day 1969, the country gets Acting President Muskie until they do finally pick a winner.)