4 presidential contests haven’t produced a winner right away

Four presidential elections dating back to 1800 failed to produce a clear winner after an initial count of the votes. Regardless of the national popular vote tally, it takes a majority of the Electoral College — now 270 votes — to elect a president. What happened when no candidate appeared to have a majority after Election Day:

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1800 — The Constitution did not initially provide for separate Electoral College votes for president and vice-president. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were running on the Democratic-Republican party ticket for president and vice-president, and tied with 73 electoral votes each. The responsibility for choosing the president shifted to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation cast one vote. It took 36 ballots and much intrigue before Delaware abstained from the vote and allowed Jefferson to muster a bare majority to become president. The 12th Amendment would be ratified in time for the 1804 election, requiring electors to cast two votes — one for president and the other for vice-president.

1824 — Andrew Jackson had a popular-vote plurality and the lead in electoral votes, but no majority, after the ballots were counted. Under the 12th Amendment, the House again was to make the final choice among the top three candidates — Jackson, John Quincy Adams and William Crawford, then the treasury secretary. Jackson and his supporters thought that as the leading vote-getter, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans should be elected. But House Speaker Henry Clay, who was no fan of Jackson, threw his support to Adams and ensured his election. Clay became Adams’ secretary of state, drawing bitter complaints that they had struck a “corrupt bargain.”