No, this is not a prediction. And it’s not a likelihood. But it would result from a scenario that is definitely imaginable without making any crazy assumptions.

Here’s how. If all states but the seven “battleground” ones vote as expected, and if Republican Donald Trump carries Georgia (I bet he does), Pennsylvania (I bet he does), and Michigan (an absolute toss-up), that would get him to 269 electoral votes. If bad Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake drags Trump down to a small loss in Arizona while horrible GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson does the same to him in North Carolina, both eminently possible, while the Democratic-union machine in Nevada finagles a close win for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris there and Wisconsin’s well-organized Democratic turnout effort gives that toss-up state to her as well, then she would also have 269 electoral votes.

According to the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that tie would send the presidential race to the House. The House would vote not by individual member but by state. If a state’s delegation is tied, the state gets no vote until the tie is broken. Because a majority of all states, not just voting states, is required to win, it takes 26 state delegations to elect a president, even if several states can’t vote at all.

Today’s House features exactly 26 states with Republican-majority delegations. It is the newly elected House, though, not the current one, that will vote in January. Redistricting in North Carolina is expected to give a GOP majority after these elections, so that makes 27. But Montana, with two Republicans, could see a shift if vulnerable incumbent Ryan Zinke loses a small current lead. A 1-1 split there would drop GOP strength back down to 26 states. Then, there is Arizona, which has a delegation with six Republicans and three Democrats right now. Two of those Republicans, though, are in tight districts. If they, like Trump, are dragged down by Lake and both lose, that would give Democrats a 5-4 Arizona majority. Presto: If all the other states retain their current makeups, that would give the GOP only 25 states, with the other 25 being a mix of Democratic-majority states or states with tied delegations.

Granted, several states here could have House delegations with different party majorities than the one chosen by its voters for president. Alaska, Montana, and North Carolina could be among them. All of those representatives would feel competing pressures — some from their parties to toe the line, while others would pressure them to honor their states’ voters’ presidential choices.

Still, let’s imagine the result stays deadlocked, with neither party getting 25 state votes in the House.

What would be happening meanwhile is that the Senate, voting by individual member rather than by state delegation, would choose the vice president. What if Republicans slightly underperform expectations there, as they did in 2022? It is entirely possible for the Senate to end in a 50-50 partisan tie for vice president. Now, who would break the tie? Presumably, Vice President Harris. If she votes for Walz before Jan. 20, he will be inaugurated as vice president on Jan. 20, no matter what has happened in the House deadlock for president.

And — get this: If the House impasse hasn’t broken by that time, then the Constitution specifies that the vice president becomes president. That vice president, as of Jan. 20, would be Walz. And he would stay in place unless and until somebody in the House changes a vote in a way that gives one of the original presidential candidates, meaning Trump or Harris, 26 state majorities.

Yes, it could happen. America, meet your self-proclaimed President Knucklehead.