President-elect dies before taking office

What happens if a president-elect dies between the election and his taking the oath of office?

If a President-elect dies after the Electoral College has voted then the candidate voted to be Vice President (the Vice President-elect) becomes President. He/She may, on January 20th (though obviously this is only a guess), be sworn in as V.P (the office they were elected to) and then as President (the office the ascended to due to its being vacant). However, if a President elect dies between election night and the time the Electoral College votes, this succession is not as clear cut or sure, for the electors pledged to the dead President-elect become defacto unpledged electors.
 
If a President-elect dies after the Electoral College has voted then the candidate voted to be Vice President (the Vice President-elect) becomes President. He/She may, on January 20th (though obviously this is only a guess), be sworn in as V.P (the office they were elected to) and then as President (the office the ascended to due to its being vacant). However, if a President elect dies between election night and the time the Electoral College votes, this succession is not as clear cut or sure, for the electors pledged to the dead President-elect become defacto unpledged electors.

Yes, but they will vote for the vice-president elect because 1) The vast majority would feel that it was their duty and 2) The electors are picked by the party winners. If the Democrats win a state the electors of that state will all be Democrats , if the Republicans win a state the electors will be Republicans. You would have to have a number of electors to cross party lines and not do what the vast majority would feel to be their duty to change an election.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Yes, but they will vote for the vice-president elect because 1) The vast majority would feel that it was their duty and 2) The electors are picked by the party winners. If the Democrats win a state the electors of that state will all be Democrats , if the Republicans win a state the electors will be Republicans. You would have to have a number of electors to cross party lines and not do what the vast majority would feel to be their duty to change an election.

You would need a politician of a large state who was strong enough to control the delegates of his state, who also believes he can win in the Congress. Then he might be tempted to go for the Presidency.

Or you could have an almost dead tie in the electoral college and just a couple of electoral college voters to vote for another candidate.

But yes, realistically, the VP become President.
 
Yes, but they will vote for the vice-president elect because 1) The vast majority would feel that it was their duty and 2) The electors are picked by the party winners. If the Democrats win a state the electors of that state will all be Democrats , if the Republicans win a state the electors will be Republicans. You would have to have a number of electors to cross party lines and not do what the vast majority would feel to be their duty to change an election.

Probably; but all that I said was that this succession is not as clear cut or sure. The electors pledged to the dead President-elect have become defacto unpledged electors. While I highly doubt that any would cross party lines I could see some questioning whether to cast their presidential vote for the V.P. person. For example, and using the last election's candidates, there might be some Democratic electors thinking "damned if I'm gonna vote for Biden" and so they vote for Gore or H. Clinton. Imagine if McCain had won by 4 electoral votes and 5 Republican electors had said "no way in hell am I going to vote for Palin" and so they vote for Romney or Huckabee. In that case the election would be thrown into the House as no one would have an electoral majority. Extremely unlikely? Yes, but...

Also bear in mind that an elector, in a situation such as this (where the presumptive President-elect dies before the E.C. votes) cannot vote for the same individual (such as Biden or Palin as used above) for both the office of President and Vice President. Things could get very messy indeed; the succession would be neither simple nor easy.
 
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