It’s within the realm of possibility that the Electoral College vote could end in a tie this election year — and that would most likely put a Democrat in the White House.

The question is, which Democrat?

Political analyst Dick Morris mapped the presidential election in the September issue of Newsmax magazine and counted 186 delegates for Democrat Barack Obama, with 83 others “leaning Obama,” for a total of 269 electoral votes. He counted 130 delegates for McCain, with 72 “leaning McCain,” for a total of 202 votes.

But Morris also counted 67 “tossup” delegates, and if the McCain-Sarah Palin ticket — which has been rising in the polls of late — were to snare those delegates, the Republican ticket would also end up with 269 votes.

The number of electoral delegates needed to win is 270.

In the event of a tie, provisions of the 12th and 20th Amendments would kick in. One provision stipulates that if no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the House of Representatives must go into session immediately to vote for president.

But in that case, each state delegation would receive only one vote, regardless of the number of House members from that state. California and New York would each have one vote, as would Wyoming and Delaware.

In the current House, there are 27 states with a Democratic majority in their House delegations, and 21 with a Republican majority. The delegations of two states, Arizona and Kansas, are equally divided between Democrats and Republicans.

The House as currently divided, then, would almost assuredly select Obama as president.

However, if the GOP were to pick up Arizona and Kansas plus two other states, each party would have 25 states and the vote would be deadlocked again.

At the same time, the House is attempting to select the president, the Senate would be required to go into session to select the vice president, with each senator receiving one vote and a majority of 51 votes required for selection.

The current Senate has a paper-thin Democratic edge, so it’s possible the Senate could also be deadlocked in selecting the vice president.

According to the Constitution, if the House cannot select a president in time for the Jan. 20 inauguration, then the vice president-elect would serve as president “until a president shall have qualified.”

But what if the Senate was indeed deadlocked and there was no vice president-elect?

According to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the sitting speaker of the House would “act as president” until either the House chose a president or the Senate chose a vice president.

With the Democrats expected to hold on to a majority in the House, that “sitting Speaker” would likely be the current speaker — Nancy Pelosi.

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