<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If, in a general election, a third-party presidential candidate had enough votes that no candidate received a majority of the votes cast, how would the winner be determined?</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">How would such a situation be handled at the state level in Louisiana and at the federal level?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">First, a reminder: When we vote for a presidential candidate in the general election, we don’t really vote for a presidential candidate. We vote for other, state-level voters, who then, via the Electoral College, vote for a presidential candidate.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">How many votes each state can cast in the Electoral College depends on how many</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">congressional representatives it has: Louisiana has six U.S. House members and two U.S. senators, so the state has eight electoral votes.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">To win the election, a presidential candidate must amass at least 270 electoral votes — a simple majority, or half of the 538 possible votes, plus one.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Under the 12th Amendment, if no candidate is able to secure the required number of votes, Congress must step in to decide the matter.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“If no candidate receives</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">a majority of Electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most Electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote,” reads the website of the National Archives and Records Administration.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“The Senate would elect the Vice President from the 2 Vice Presidential candidates with the most Electoral votes. Each Senator would cast one vote for Vice President. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Victory at the state level goes to the presidential slate that amasses the largest number of votes. In the case of a tie — an unlikely event — the winning slate would be chosen by a public drawing of lots in Baton Rouge.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“If two or more of the slates of candidates having the highest number of votes receive the same number of votes, none of the slates of candidates is elected, and the slate of candidates elected shall be selected by a public drawing of lots conducted by the state board of election supervisors from among the slate of candidates who received such highest number of votes in the election,” reads Louisiana R.S. 18:1261.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“The public drawing of lots shall be conducted at the state</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">capitol on a day and at a time fixed by the board within one week after the results of the election for that office become official. The candidates involved shall be given at least three days’ written notice of the time and place of the public drawing of lots.”</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.archives.gov; www.legis.la.gov.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AHeadBrief">Correction: Salary list misidentified official</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Informer on Sunday listed the names and annual salaries of Lake Charles city department heads. Among the names listed was Esther Vincent, who is described on the city’s website as head of the Community Services Department.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But City Administrator John Cardone, who provided The Informer with the salary totals for each job title, said Tuesday that the director of community services, which oversees city parks and other areas, is Percy Brown, not Vincent.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Similar salary data is forthcoming from the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.cityoflakecharles.com.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>