If a Florida 2000 recount continued past January 20th 2001...

[GPORTER]

does the speaker of the house become President?

[True Federalist]

does the speaker of the house become President?

No, at most the Speaker would become a temporary Acting President.

If Florida proved totally unable to select electors in time, then Florida would have simply not voted, and thus Gore would have won the electoral college 267-245.

If however electors had met and voted despite the ongoing recount in the contest to see who won the office of elector, then presumably 25 votes for Bush/Cheney would have been sent and it would have been up to Congress to decide whether they would be accepted.  However, it would take both Houses agreeing to reject them, otherwise they would have to be accepted under current law.  I can't see the Republican House voting to outright reject them unless a Florida recount was completed before January 6th 2001, the day the electoral votes were scheduled to be counted, and Gore won the recount. It's possible that if the recount was still going on, the House would refuse to decide whether to reject or accept the votes and thus leave the election in limbo, which would indeed trigger having the Speaker become Acting President, but only until the question of whether to accept Florida's 25 votes had been resolved and a President had been elected. (At which point the former Speaker would if he was lucky, be able to file for the special election to fill the seat he had had to resign from to become Acting President. This is one more reason the Speaker and PPT need to be removed from the line of succession.)

[Oldiesfreak1854]

If the recounts had gone past the deadline to send the electors, then the election would have gone to the House of Representatives.  At least, that's what one of my PoliSci professors said.

[I left.]

If the recounts had gone past the deadline to send the electors, then the election would have gone to the House of Representatives.  At least, that's what one of my PoliSci professors said.

What kind of professors do you have?

[True Federalist]

If the recounts had gone past the deadline to send the electors, then the election would have gone to the House of Representatives.  At least, that's what one of my PoliSci professors said.

What kind of professors do you have?

Sloppy apparently.  It never could have gone into the House for a majority of delegations vote as in 1800 and 1824.  There were only four possible outcomes.

Gore wins 267-245 (Florida's votes are not counted)
Gore wins 292-245 (Florida's votes are counted for Gore)
Bush wins 270-267 (Florida's votes are counted for Bush)
The Speaker of the House becomes Acting President pending the outcome of the recount which would allow for the counting of the electoral votes of all the states.

(Said speaker need not have been Hastert.  Indeed, the House might have chosen to temporarily name Bush as Speaker so that he would become Acting President until the recount was done.)

[Oldiesfreak1854]

If the recounts had gone past the deadline to send the electors, then the election would have gone to the House of Representatives.  At least, that's what one of my PoliSci professors said.

What kind of professors do you have?

Sloppy apparently.  It never could have gone into the House for a majority of delegations vote as in 1800 and 1824.  There were only four possible outcomes.

Gore wins 267-245 (Florida's votes are not counted)
Gore wins 292-245 (Florida's votes are counted for Gore)
Bush wins 270-267 (Florida's votes are counted for Bush)
The Speaker of the House becomes Acting President pending the outcome of the recount which would allow for the counting of the electoral votes of all the states.

(Said speaker need not have been Hastert.  Indeed, the House might have chosen to temporarily name Bush as Speaker so that he would become Acting President until the recount was done.)

Gore could not have won with 267 electoral votes since 270 is a majority.  In that case, it would go to the House.  My professor said he remembers his fellow political scientists were hoping it would go past the deadline so that the election would go to a House vote.  They had to recount the votes to make sure the result was accurate, but if the Supreme Court hadn't ordered them to end the counts, the election would have been decided by the House, where Bush most likely would have won.

[I left.]

The words "Florida 2000" and "accurate" aren't really words you should use together

[True Federalist]

Gore could not have won with 267 electoral votes since 270 is a majority.  In that case, it would go to the House.  My professor said he remembers his fellow political scientists were hoping it would go past the deadline so that the election would go to a House vote.  They had to recount the votes to make sure the result was accurate, but if the Supreme Court hadn't ordered them to end the counts, the election would have been decided by the House, where Bush most likely would have won.

If Florida never appoints electors (which would have been the only way to get a 267-245 result) then the number needed for the constitutionally required "a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed" would be 257 of the 513 Electors appointed.  The requirement is "a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed" not "a majority of the whole number of Electors apportioned".

(Note, the DC elector who was appointed but did not cast a vote, does count for determining what is needed for a majority.)

[Gary J]

In the hypothetical case that the President had not been chosen by the start of the term, would not the Vice President elect have become acting President rather than the Speaker? If the electoral votes for Vice President had not resulted in an election, then the Senate would select the Vice President. Although, as the Senate was evenly divided in early 2001, the Speaker might have become acting President, until Jim Jeffords became an Independent in June and then Joe Lieberman could be elected Vice President and displace the ex-Speaker, as acting President.

[True Federalist]

Yes, if there is a Vice President-elect, but no President-elect, the Vice President would serve as Acting President until a President was elected.  And as you noticed, tho often is not noticed, the Senate's vote for Vice President is one that the sitting Vice President does not get to act as the tie-breaker for since it requires a majority of all the Senators, whether they are voting or not, so 51 Senators are needed.