Creative Electoral Schemes Never Work
But politicians keep trying them.
The centrist political group No Labels has been working hard to terrify Democrats in recent months. Earlier this year, it announced that it was planning on launching a centrist bid for the White House. At first, the group sought to mollify Democratic leaders by promising not to run a candidate if its polling suggested that a No Labels candidate had no chance of winning. But in early October, the strategy shifted. No Labels now has no intention of limiting its candidate ambitions. It hopes to garner enough electoral votes to throw the election into the House of Representatives, where it hopes to help secure support for a compromise candidate.
With this announcement, No Labels is joining a long list of other candidates hoping to shake up the political system. The fact that a disputed election can be decided in the House of Representatives has been known by political parties since the nation’s earliest years. There is little evidence to suggest that the plan can work, however.
Proponents of forcing a contested election point back to the presidential election of 1824 as their original example. That year, four major candidates competed for the presidency. No candidate obtained a majority and the House of Representatives was forced to choose. Henry Clay, one of those candidates, likely made a deal…