Blue, Red, and Dead
A presidential election reaches a constitutional breaking point when the Electoral College cannot produce the required majority and the outcome of a major state remains unresolved.
Political / Constitutional Thriller
The Story
The President has decided not to run again. His Vice President, a woman who has spent her career being underestimated, takes the nomination and a hard-fought campaign to the wire.
On election night, the map comes down to one state, and that state can’t decide. Neither candidate reaches 270 electoral votes. The Twelfth Amendment says what happens next, but it was written for a different country, and nobody alive has seen it used.
What follows plays out in courtrooms, statehouses and the corridors of the Capitol, and in places that never make the news. Allies become liabilities. Old debts come due. And some people decide that if the system can’t produce a winner, they will.
Why a Lawyer Wrote It
The idea took root during Bush v. Gore in 2000, when a presidential election came down to a few hundred votes and a Supreme Court decision. Every close election since has pointed to the same weak spot: the process for a true deadlock has almost never been used, and the rules leave room for whoever is most willing to push.
Timothy updated the novel to reflect the 2024 race and released it on Election Day, November 5, 2024.
