U.S. Presidential succesion ?

A question for our American friends. What happens if between the election and the inaugaration of a new government if both the president and vice presindent elect are killed?
 
A question for our American friends. What happens if between the election and the inaugaration of a new government if both the president and vice presindent elect are killed?

That depends. If it is after the election but before the Electoral College votes, then the Electoral College would elect somebody different. Since the members of the EC are basically selected for their loyalty to the party, they would elect someone else from the same party. However if the candidates die shortly before the vote and the EC doesn't have time to organize themselves behind one candidate, then we could conceivably have a situation where no one gets a majority and it goes to the Congress to elect the President. But assuming they have a week or so, then it's easy. The party leaders meet and essentially "nominate" someone to take the place of the dead candidates. The only problem is that a few states have "faithless elector" laws (if you don't know what a faithless elector is, then look it up on Wikipedia) to prevent this situation, which could complicate things.

If the deaths occured after the EC votes, then I really don't know. AFAIK, there is not specific provision in the Constitution for such an occurence. My assumption is that the Speaker of the House would be sworn in instead, just like if they had died after the innauguration, but ultimately I think the Supreme Court would have to make a ruling on what happens.

Either way, whoever ends up in office will come in under a cloud of controversy since he or she would have been selected by the Supreme Court or by a bunch of party hacks in the EC, rather than by the people. Picture Bush in 2000 times about a billion. It would be an unenviable position to say the least.
 
So basically you've got a huge constitutional crisis where for a time no one knows who the next President is. God help the worlds stock markets when that sinks in. I hate to think how many conspiricy theories get started but I imagine the ones about Kennedy and Diana get lost in the storm
 
So basically you've got a huge constitutional crisis where for a time no one knows who the next President is. God help the worlds stock markets when that sinks in. I hate to think how many conspiricy theories get started but I imagine the ones about Kennedy and Diana get lost in the storm

no, the Speaker of the House is President.
 
There is absolutely no problem of succession here. Both the 2nd and 3rd in line for the Presidency (Speaker of the House and President pro tempore of the Senate respectively) are completely independent of the winning presidential-elect ticket.

If for some reason there is a problem with swearing in one of the two listed above, the next 16 spots of the order of succession are the members of the previous president's Cabinet. While tradition places them as lame ducks as the same time as the sitting President, they have no legal term limits. They hold their office until their successor is nominated and approved.
 
The line of succession goes:

1) President (Barack Obama)
2) Vice-President (Joe Biden)
3) Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi)
4) President pro tempore of the Senate (Robert Byrd)\
5) Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton)
6) Secretary of the Treasury (Timothy Geithner)
7) Secretary of Defense (Robert Gates)
8)Attorney General (Eric Holder)
9) Secretary of the Interior (Ken Salazar)
10) Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack)

And so on until you get the to least senior cabinet position, which right now is the Secretary of Homeland Security, currently held by Janet Napolitano.

In this case, assuming the President and Vice-President had died, Nancy Pelosi would be next in line. After that would be Byrd, though Robert Byrd's physical condition means that he may not be able to handle the duties, which would pass it to Hillary Clinton. And so it goes down the line.
 
The US has clear rules for what happens if the President and Vice President die in office. But he asked what would happen if such an event were to occur between an election and an innauguration. There really are no rules or precedents for what happens if a President-Elect dies. As I said, there is no problem if it occurs before the Elecotral College votes, but if it happens afterwards it could theoretically get sticky.

EDIT: Never mind. After examining the Presidential Succession Act more closely, it does indeed apply to Presidents-elect. So if the President-elect and Vice President-elect die between the Electoral College vote (when they officially become President-elect) and the innauguration, the Speaker of the House is indeed innaugurated. However, if it happens before the Electoral College vote it is as I said earlier.
 
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The US has clear rules for what happens if the President and Vice President die in office. But he asked what would happen if such an event were to occur between an election and an innauguration. There really are no rules or precedents for what happens if a President-Elect dies. As I said, there is no problem if it occurs before the Elecotral College votes, but if it happens afterwards it could theoretically get sticky.

no clearly if there is no President or Vice-President, with at high noon January 20 there isn't one, the Speaker of the House becomes President.
 
There is a novel dealing with this situation, Line Of Succession, by Brian Garfield (published in 1972). The President-elect and the Vice-President-elect have both been assassinated by terrorists, along with the Speaker of the House. The President pro tempore is old and totally unacceptable as President. The problem is solved by considering that the Presidency is only vacant at noon on January 20th, so the House can elect a new Speaker before then, and this guy becomes the next President.
 
In 1849 the president elect Zachary Taylor was so religious he refused to swear in on that Sunday. So David Rice Atchison the President pro tempore was president for that one Sunday.
 
The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 has never been invoked, and there have been some who quesiton whether the Speaker and President pro tempore are eligble in the line of succession. Some argue, pointing to James Madison's notes from the Constitutional Convention, that the term officer in the succession clause of Article II Section I excludes members of the legislature. This situation would likely end up in the Supreme Court, particularly if the President-elect and Speaker are from two different parties.
 
well from what i've read on a situation between Election Day and when the EC meets to "certify" the election where the President elect is either found to be ineligible or dies, the current sitting President remains in office until a new Election is held. After the EC votes it doesn't matter and goes by Succession rules.
 
An interesting quirk of the Speaker succeeding in this case is that the Speaker is elected as the first order of business for each Congress (which convenes on Jan 3, 17 days before the new President takes office, so there's time before Inauguration Day for the new Congress to ratify the count of Electoral Votes, resolve disputed Electoral Votes, and elect a President if there's no majority in the Electoral College). So if the President and VP die before Jan 3, everybody will know that the House is actually electing the next President.

There's also no Constitutional requirements for eligiblity to be elected as Speaker. AFAIK, it's always been a member of the House, but it could be anyone who can get a majority of the House to support them. In order to succeed as President, they'd need to meet the Constitutional requirements for the Presidency (35 years old, >20 years residency, and Natural Born Citizen).

So our timeline is:

Before Electoral College votes are cast (first Monday after second Wednesday in December) -- Electoral College picks a new President-Elect and VP-Elect, with possibility of shenanigans leading to a weird outcome or miscoordination leading to no majority (in which case the House votes by state to pick which of the top three candidates is President, and the Senate picks a VP from the top two candidates).

After EC votes, but before Jan 3 -- The House elects a new President via the Speaker election. The new President appoints a VP under the 25th amendment, subject to confirmation by both houses of Congress. If nobody can get a majority in the House by Jan 20, the President Pro Tem of the Senate automatically succeeds as President.

After Jan 3 -- The Speaker succeeds as President and appoints a VP under the 25th amendment.

In the event that there's also no Speaker and no President Pro Tem of the Senate, the succession act says the Cabinet Secretaries in order of departmental seniority are next in line. Is there a law that says Cabinet Secretaries' terms expire with their Presidents' term, or is their resignation/dismissal merely customary?
 
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