Are you nervous that this year's election might take a long time to resolve? Did you know this is not the first time in American history?
And we're not talking about the election of 2000. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
How about the election of 1800?In the election of 1800, the Federalist incumbent John Adams ran against the rising Republican Thomas Jefferson. The extremely partisan and outright nasty campaign failed to provide a clear winner because of a constitutional quirk. Presidential electors were required to vote for two people for the offices of president and vice-president. The individual receiving the highest number of votes would become president. Unfortunately，Jefferson and his vice-presidential running mate Aaron Burr both received the identical number of electoral votes, and the House of Representatives voted to break the tie. When Adams’s Federalists attempted to keep Jefferson from the presidency, the stage was set for the first critical constitutional crisis of the new American federal republic. (Library of Congress)
Or the election or 1876?
The results of the U.S. presidential election of 1876 were a mess. A Democratic candidate had emerged with the lead in the popular vote, but 19 electoral votes from four states were in dispute. In 1877, Congress convened to settle the election (History.com)Read more about it online: American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction. Available online at the NOVA Library.
