The House of Representatives is ready to play a "prominent role" in deciding who the next president will be in case the results are disputed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with NPR Monday.
"We're ready. We're prepared. We've been ready for a while because we see this irresponsibility of the president, his disrespect for the Constitution, for our democracy, and for the integrity of our elections. So we're ready for him," Pelosi told the public radio station, Fox News reports.
According to a Politico report released in September, the California Democrat had already begun preparing for the possibility that neither President Donald Trump nor Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
If there is a tie in the Electoral College, with both candidates getting 269 votes, the "newly seated House of Representatives" will hold a vote, reports The New York Times. The vote could come down to which party controls more state delegations in the House after Tuesday's election.
"But let's not worry about that right now," Pelosi said. "What we want to be ready for is a big vote tomorrow to dispel any thought other than that, on Jan. 20, Joe Biden will be inaugurated president of the United States, that we will have a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate."
The last time the House decided a presidential election was in 1876. An Electoral College tie also occurred in the 1800 election, which led, in part, to the creation of the 12th Amendment of the Constitution that outlines the procedure for electing a president and vice president.
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