Special elections scenario

JoeMulk

Banned
Inspired by The West Wing thread what would it take for there to be some situation which called for a special presidential election?
 

Eurofed

Banned
Inspired by The West Wing thread what would it take for there to be some situation which called for a special presidential election?

A crisis where both the President and the VP die or resign before the 25th Amendment seems your best bet.
 
Pre-John Tyler it was unclear if the Vice-President became President after the death of the President or just acting-president, when William Henry Harrison died many wanted John Tyler to be acting-president till a Special election could be held, if Harrison had had a weaker willed Veep that might be the system we have today.
 

JoeMulk

Banned
I have a recent one, The "Draft Eisenhower movement" fails and Bob Taft gets the Republican nomination in 1952 with Nixon as his runningmate, shortly after taking office Nixon is forced to resign due to some scandal and Taft dies on schedule per OTL. The speaker of the house Joseph Matin becomes president and presses congress to push for a special elections act and an election is held in 1954.
 
I have a recent one, The "Draft Eisenhower movement" fails and Bob Taft gets the Republican nomination in 1952 with Nixon as his runningmate, shortly after taking office Nixon is forced to resign due to some scandal and Taft dies on schedule per OTL. The speaker of the house Joseph Matin becomes president and presses congress to push for a special elections act and an election is held in 1954.

Wouldn't you need a constitutional amendment to do that? I can understand why an election makes sense, but since the constitution mandates four-year terms, and since Tyler established the precedent of accession to office, you'd need either the SCOTUS to rule that Tyler's accession was unconstitutional or have an alt-25th that allows for early elections.

I think the best bet for special elections after Tyler is for a presidential election to be ruled as fraudulent and for the Supreme Court to order a re-run.
 
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Wouldn't you need a constitutional amendment to do that? I can understand why an election makes sense, but since the constitution mandates four-year terms, and since Tyler established the precedent of accession to office, you'd need either the SCOTUS to rule that Tyler's accession was unconstitutional or have an alt-25th that allows for early elections.

I think the best bet for special elections after Tyler is for a presidential election to be ruled as fraudulent and for the Supreme Court to order a re-run.
You might, but I think that the SCOTUS could simply rule that the VP or speaker or whomever, on ascending to the position could declare himself 'acting' - that Tyler's decision was valid precedent that one COULD ascend to the full presidency, but not that one HAD to.

It would likely take a SCOTUS ruling, though, and it would mess up the established 4 year cycle.
 
I have a recent one, The "Draft Eisenhower movement" fails and Bob Taft gets the Republican nomination in 1952 with Nixon as his runningmate, shortly after taking office Nixon is forced to resign due to some scandal and Taft dies on schedule per OTL. The speaker of the house Joseph Matin becomes president and presses congress to push for a special elections act and an election is held in 1954.

I should mention in a friendly manner that Nixon wasn't necessarily scandal prone this early in his life. It was his lost to Kennedy in 1960 that started to make him feel paranoid about people trying to make sure he did not get his proper dues.

Now I know what RB feels like :rolleyes:
 

JoeMulk

Banned
No 25th Amendment and Watergate seems to me to make a special election in 1974 quite likely,

Nixon resigns in November of 73 leaving time for the special election to develop. Speaker Carl Albert declines to run and the Democrats nominate Humphery a second time who defeats Jim Rhodes as the Republicans are looking for a non-nixonian.
 

Eurofed

Banned
No 25th Amendment and Watergate seems to me to make a special election in 1974 quite likely,

To butterfly the 25th Amendment beyond the 70s does not seem so plausible to me, however. That there was increasingly widespread concern about the issues it solved and a potential crisis of Presidential leadership in the cold War, after FDR's death, Eisenhower's repeated infarctions, and Kennedy's assassination.

IMO a better PoD might be Johnson's assassination in 1865 alongside Lincoln. Booth's accomplice that was assigned Johnson's assassination gets courage.
 
Have Millard Fillmore and Zachary Taylor both die in the summer of 1850.
According to the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, there would have
to be a special election that fall.

David Rice Atchison might well be a candidate :|
 
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