Would runoff voting be possible in future US presidential elections?

Question

Would it be possible in the future to use runoff voting in US presidential elections, while still retaining the Electoral College, or would a constitutional amendment be required?

(if any candidate fails to receive 50% of the vote, all the candidates except for the top two are eliminated and the votes of the other candidates are redistributed according to preference on the ballots. After all the votes have been counted, one candidate must have received more than 50% of the votes. This system allows people to vote for a 3rd party without 'throwing their vote away.)

Answer 1

Yes I think it could be done as you say with out a constitutional amendment.  The ballots could be changed to allow voters to select a fist choice and a second choice on the same ballot.  The problem is we would end up with too many canidates on the ballot.  All the canidates who lost in the primaries would  run as independents.  The current system allows us to narrow down the field to only two persons and really focus in on them.

Answer 2

As described above, the Constitution does address ties.

Following the 2000 presidential election, U.S. interest grew in "instant runoff voting" (IRV) or ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank their candidates in order of preference.

The candidate with the least support are dropped and their votes reallocated based on the voter's next choice. The process is repeated until there is a clear winner. (It's actually not that different from the caucus system, just in ballot form.)

This has been the norm in Australia for some time and has its advocates and detractors. While it has been adopted in some local and state governments in the United States, although getting it adopted nation-wide would be a major challenge to the status quo--for better or for worse.

I've included a link to an organization that advocates IRV.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The US Constitution ALREADY states that if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College then the US House of Representatives will hold an internal vote to determine the president.  This happened once in US history.

QUOTE: The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chose by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chose the President.

So, if there was a major third party candidate and the Electoral college votes are split more or less evenly among the three the President will be named by the US House of Representatives.