If the original plan were now followed, this is about what would happen: After the presidential election in November the people and the newspapers would be discussing the probable attitude of the electors, wondering whom they would choose and making various suggestions to them. Some electors would be announcing their preferences; others would be keeping silent. With great interest we should await the meetings of the electors in January; the newspaper reporters would crowd outside the door to gain the first inkling of their decisions in each state; the returns would come in one by one from the forty-eight state capitals and would be figured up with breathless interest. But what actually does happen is very different from this. On the evening of the presidential election the fight is all over. Nobody knows, and nobody cares who the electors are. We only know that a majority of them will vote for the Republican or for the Democratic candidate when the time comes. In January they meet, almost unnoticed, cast their votes as a matter of form, and get a small paragraph somewhere on the inside pages of the newspapers. Footnote 125: See p. 158. Footnote 126: The House votes by states; the Senate by individual members. See Amendment XII. In 1800 there was a tie, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, each having an equal number of votes. The House of Representatives decided the tie by electing Jefferson. Then the Twelfth Amendment was adopted. In 1824 no candidate received a majority, and on this occasion the House chose John Quincy Adams as President. The system worked thereafter without mishap for over fifty years, but in 1876 there was a serious muddle because twenty-two electoral voters were in dispute, namely, the votes of Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. From each of these states two sets of electors claimed to have been chosen. The controversy was decided by a special commission of fifteen members, five from the Senate, five from the House, and five from the Supreme Court. By a vote of 8 to 7 this commission decided in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes and he became President. Footnote 127: In the Republican national convention of 1920, for example, General Leonard Wood and Governor Lowden polled the largest number of votes on the first ballot. Senator Hiram Johnson of California was third and Senator Harding of Ohio was fourth. But neither of the two leading candidates could obtain a majority although ballot after ballot was taken. Finally, when the delegates were becoming tired and impatient, some of their leaders came together and agreed to unite on Senator Harding. They advised their supporters to swing over to him and on a subsequent ballot he was nominated. Footnote 128: