The top two presidential candidates have danced close to the 50-50 mark in almost every US election since 1824

It’s not hard to find close elections. In 2015, a Mississippi state house race ended in a tie, after which the winner was decided by drawing straws. A 2013 mayoral race in the Philippines was deadlocked and resolved with a coin toss. A 2013 legislative election in Austria was decided by a single vote, after wrangling over the validity of a ballot featuring a vulgar cartoon. But there is one election that is so consistently close, and so important, that it deserves special consideration—the United States presidential election.

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