[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1615”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“alt”:“Wall Street Journal”}}]]With polls showing slim margins in electoral votes between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, The Wall Street Journal turned to Dartmouth’s Linda Fowler, a professor of government and the Frank J. Reagan ’09 Chair in Policy Studies, to answer the question, “What happens if there is a tie?”

If there is a split electoral vote, Fowler says, “I think the most likely thing is that the counts will be challenged in several of the battleground states and that the courts will be weighing in.”

“If the races are not contested in court,” Fowler tells The Wall Street Journal, “then the electors meet in December, as the 12th Amendment to the Constitution specifies, and they cast their ballots. And presuming there is a tie, if all the electors are faithful and do what they were bound to do, then a tie would go to the House of Representatives, and it would be the new House. … So depending on how the different Congressional delegations play out, there is some chance that the House could select Barack Obama, but more likely it would be Romney.”

Watch the video published 11/1/12 on The Wall Street Journal’s News Hub.