How many times has there been a tie for President?
The Electoral College has tied only once – in 1800. The Constitution didn’t originally envision two candidates running together as a President/Vice Presidential team. Back then whoever got a majority of the electoral votes won and whoever came in second became vice president. When Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran together as running mates, they apparently forgot to factor in that they would probably get the same number of votes running as a team! They tied 73-73. Burr, who was supposed to be the VP candidate decided he might win the presidency and fought for it in the House election. It took the Representatives 36 ballots over 6 days to finally declare Jefferson the winner. This election led to the ratifiacation of the 12th Amendment which changed the electoral process to the one we use today.
