Pres and VP elect assassinated

[2952-0-0]

What if during the two week long official lame duck period the President and VP elect are both assassinated, simautaneously?

[BobOMac2k2]

I think then Kerry and Edwards would take over.

Or it would go to the Speaker.

[Peter]

The line of succession kicks in.

For the purposes of our example I shall arbitrarily assume that the President-elect and VP-elect were assassinated on 10th January.

If (as we have presently) a re-elected President and VP, then the line of succession promotes the Speaker of the House to the Presidency for the ten days till a new President is duly sworn in; Since the Elects are both dead, then that would be whoever the new Speaker of the House would be. For this reason, it is likely that both the Speaker and PPT (so that they wouldn't lose their seats and would be eligible for the entire 4 year term) would pass themselves over (they can do so under the US code) and the SecState would become President for ten days. Then when the ten days were up, the Speaker would become the new President for the entire 4 year term.

If we had a situation such as we had in 2000 with a brand new Prez and VP, then the Speaker would simply become President Elect and would be sworn in on the 20th just like any other President Elect.

I hope that is vaguely clear.

[Peter]

I think then Kerry and Edwards would take over.

It could only have gone to Kerry if Bush and Cheney had been assassinated between casting of electoral votes (which I think was Dec 13th) and counting of electoral votes (which I think was Jan 6th)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

That assumes that they follow the precedent followed in 1872 because of Greeley's death.  However, Greeley died before the electors cast their ballots.  If the deaths happened after the ballots were cast, they might choose to go ahead and count them.

[Erc]

22nd/23rd Amendment says "Congress may by law provide..." for this exact circumstance.  So the Speaker gets it.  [Although the losing party could argue this to death, based on the Greeley precedent...but the SupCt (if it got there) would uphold the Speaker's claim]

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I would say that the Greely precedent is still germane.  The United States Code is silent about whether an electoral vote cast for a deceased person is a vaild vote.  Note that the precedent does not say anything about whether a vote cast for a person who died after the vote was cast is valid.  I think it could be reasonably inferred from the language of 3 USC 19 that a person who dies after the electoral votes are cast would still receive those votes, and if they be a majority of the electors, become President-elect or Vice President-elect as the case may be, who would then fail to qualify because he was dead, but it isn't explicit.

[opebo]

When I read the subject of this thread, I thought of all the Secret Police monitering this board..

[MaC]

then we would have President Hassert.  If this happens, the presidency goes to the speaker of the house.  Not really an improvement, but better than Dick Cheney or Newt Gingrich as President

[A18]

Which Speaker would become president, the new or old (assuming they're not the same)? Would it matter if the new Congress had been sworn in yet?