so it’s election day votes are being tallied to decide who the next president will be but what happens if the race is a tie well the last time there was a tie in the Electoral College was the 1800 election in the race between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr and it hasn’t happened since however that year proved a need to come up with a plan in the event of another tie that plan is called a contingent election in order to be elected president the winning candidate must gain the majority of the Electoral College votes today that’s 270 if neither candidate gets to that magic number 270 it’s now up to the newly elected Congress to decide the winner the house will choose the president with each state given one vote the candidate must receive 26 votes or the majority to be elected then the Senate will vote on the vice president each Senator will cast one vote for vice president and the candidate must receive 51 votes or the majority to win if the house for some reason can’t agree on a winner by Inauguration Day in January the vice president-elect will serve as acting president until a winner is chosen