WHOOPS
I just took a look at the Constitution, and it looks to me as though the old Congress would choose the president from the list of the five people with the most electoral votes in case no one had a majority. Does anyone know for sure whether this is right?
That's what the original Constitution said, but the 12th Amendment changed it sp that the House chooses from the top three in the Electoral College, voting by states. For example, a state with five Democratic representatives and three Republican ones would cast its vote for the Democrat, and a state with two Republican representatives and one Democratic one would cast its vote for the Republican, so these votes would offset each other even though taking the two states together the vote would be six for the Democrat and five for the Republican. I don't think that anybody who has thought about the question thinks that this is a sensible system today, but because there are only two parties the odds that there won't be an electoral college majority are slim.
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