The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1912-09-21
Some Startling
Presidential Possibilities
By John Temple Graves

This vivid and sensational Presidential campaign is charged
with astonishing possibilities that extend beyond the ballots of
November.
Unless the result on November 5 should be absolutely con-
elusive, the excitement of American politics will have just begun.
The Democratic committee expresses the most unbounded con-
6dence that Wilson will be elected by a great majority OF the popu-
lar vote and of the Electoral College.
The Republican committee expresses al equal confidence In
Mr.. Tafts election.
And the Progressive party is enthusiastically sure that Mr.
Roosevelt will be elected.
The impartial observers in the county agree that wilson 8
chances are best, but that the progress of the campaign may de-
velop increasing and formidable strength for Roosevelt Or Taft in
the Electoral College
There arr a great many people who regard it "a distinctly prob
able that the strength of the three leading candidates may be so
divided in the Electoral College as to throw the election, under the
Constitution, into the House of Representatives. In this connec-
ton these are the facts to consider:
In the election of a President by the House of Representatives
each of the 4S States has a single vote, and the political majority in
the State delegation determines for whom that vote is cast There
ar % State delegations in which the Republicans have a majority,
% in which Democrats have a majority, and four in which the Dem
oorats and Republicans + tied. These four tied States are
Maine, with two Democrats and two Republicans; Nebraska, with
three Democrats and three Republicans; New Mexico, with one
Democrat and one Republican,; and Rhode Island, with m Demo
cat and one Republican.
The States that would cast votes for a Democrat are Alabama,
Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky,
Louisiana. Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New
York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. Total, %
The States that would cast votes for a Republican Presidentare
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas
Massachusetts,, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hamp-
shire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah.
Vermont. Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming. Total, 22.
Never before in American history has there been found on the
eve of a Presidential election a House SO evenly divided between
parties IS to make a choice improbable, if not impossible, under the
party divisions that exist.
If Wilson should receive 26O votes and lack the seven votes
necessary to a majority of the Electoral College, he would not be
elected. and the Roosevelt-Tat electoral votes would be strong
enough to throw the election into the House. Then the equal party
division of the States might, and probably would, make an election
of a President practically impossible by the House.
Whereupon, after ballots extending through the session, the
election, under the Constitution, would go to the Senate through the
necessity of electing a Vice-President and presiding officer. The
choice would be restricted to the two candidates receiving the
highest vote for vce-President in the general election. In this
case the Vice-Preident or presiding officer of the Senate SO elected
would become the President of the United States.
But notice the complications. The Senate is Republican, and
the Republican Senate would naturally choosethe Republican candl-
date for Vice-President, even though he had been beaten, world
without end, in the November ballot So that in the not improb-
able event of the election going to the Senate, that Republican
party might elect its own presiding officer, himself a candidate and
make "Sunny Jim" the President of the United States.
Or in case Hiram johnson of California ran second in the cleo
tions, the Republican Senate might make Hiram Johnson Presi-
dent of the United States.
In other words, if Wilson ran 100000 votes ahead in the
general elections, and yet lacked two votes, or even one vote, in the
Electoral College, and the evenly divided House failed to make a
choice, the Senate might make one, or the other of the minority
candidates of a divided or defeated Republican party for V1ce-Presf
dent the chief Executive of the republic.
IL in turn. the Senate should by death or persuasion divide
equally among three vice-presidential candidates (Which is not i'm
possiblel then Philander Knox of Pennsylvania, Secretary of State,
would become ex-oficio President of the United States
So that the field of possibilities in this wonderful Presidential
campaign is wide open and fairly thrilling with interest
The enthusiastic friends of the candidates may, of course, laugh
At the speculation, but there are thousands on the watch tower who
will find enough in the outlook to keep them awake to the end OF
the chapter.