Contingent election

A contingent election is a procedure used in United States presidential elections in the case where no candidate wins an absolute majority of votes in the Electoral College. A contingent election for the president is decided by a vote of the United States House of Representatives, whereas a contingent election for the vice president is decided by a vote of the United States Senate. The contingent election procedure, along with the other parts of the Electoral College process, was first established in Article Two, Section 1, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, then modified by the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment.

Contingent elections are extremely rare, having occurred only three times in the history of the United States, all in the early nineteenth century. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson was pitted against his own vice-presidential nominee in a contingent election due to the oddities of the pre-Twelfth Amendment electoral procedure. In 1824, the presence of four candidates split the Electoral College, and Andrew Jackson lost the contingent election to John Quincy Adams despite winning a plurality of both the popular and electoral vote. In 1836, faithless electors in Virginia refused to vote for Martin Van Buren's vice-presidential nominee Richard Mentor Johnson, denying him a majority of the electoral vote and forcing the Senate to elect him in a contingent election.

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