If the President-Elect dies...

[Undecided Voter in the Midwest]

Suppose the president-elect dies after the electoral college votes are officially counted, but before inauguration day. What happens then?

I'm guessing that the House of Representatives would meet to elect the new president, and would probably choose the vice president-elect to be the new president-elect. But are there any laws that specify exactly what is to be done in such a situation?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The relevant law is 3 USC 19. What would happen is that on January 20 the vice president-elect would be sworn in as vice president, then since there was a vacancy in the presidency be sworn in as president.

If both the president-elect and the vice president-elect were to die before taking office, then on January 20 the Speaker of the House (if constitutionally eligible) would become President.  The death of the president-elect and the vice president-elect is treated much the same as the death of the president and vice president except that who fills the vacancy is determined by who holds office at the start of the term, not when they die.

Also, from the 1872 election there is precedent for what to do when a nominee dies before the electors meet and cast their ballots.  If an elector casts a ballot for a dead person, the vote is not counted.

[Undecided Voter in the Midwest]

Okay, thanks.

[SteveRogers]

Suppose the president-elect dies after the electoral college votes are officially counted, but before inauguration day. What happens then?

I'm guessing that the House of Representatives would meet to elect the new president, and would probably choose the vice president-elect to be the new president-elect. But are there any laws that specify exactly what is to be done in such a situation?

The Vice President-elect becomes President. (President for the whole term, not just Acting President). If the President-elect and Vice President-elect both die before inauguration, the Speaker of the House becomes President (they'd technically be Acting President, but they'd serve the whole term).

20th Amendment:

"If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified."

[Mr. Morden]

I think my scenario is more interesting:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=88095.0

In brief, a bomb goes off at the inauguration, killing the newly sworn in president and VP, as well as the Speaker and President Pro Temp.  At that point, the Cabinet still officially consists of holdovers from the previous administration, because Cabinet terms don't automatically expire on Jan. 20.  And so, the previous president's Secretary of State could arguably be sworn in for a full four year term.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Then the Vice President is sworn in as President on Inauguration Day, I think.  I think something like this was mentioned during the 1988 campaign when people made a big deal about Dan Quayle being George H.W. Bush's running mate.

[heatmaster]

What happens say if the President already serving, has been reelected along with his Vice President and then the President dies about three weeks before the inauguration. Does the Vice president have the same rights as the deceased president (as he/she has been reelected as well).
Would the congress still certify results as if president were still alive? Are there constitutional issues in play under such a scenario?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

No constitutional issues are involved for most of these scenarios.

The twentieth amendment specifies that if the President-elect dies before being sworn in, the Vice President-elect is sworn in as President on Inauguration Day. (I.e., no need to first be sworn in as Veep and then immediately after be sworn in as Pres.)

The precedent from the 1872 election is that if electors cast votes for people who were dead when they voted, they aren't counted, but once the electors have voted, any further deaths simply trigger the usual rules of Presidential succession with the only oddity being that if a tragedy struck the inauguration itself, a member of the previous administration could unexpectedly end up being President for four years.

[heatmaster]

So what happens if the President has died before the electors meet. As it clear that both he/she were both reelected; what are the electors required to do then? Vote for the Vice President (in election) but now the serving president by succession,  but not election?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

They can vote for whoever they wish, presumably whoever the party selects as the replacements unless it happens just before they cast their votes.

Conceivably, if that party holds the Senate, it might give the electors free choice in their vice presidential vote (assuming it promotes the veep to the prez slot) since the Senate selects the top two and thus could elect whoever got the most EVs within the party as the veep-elect.

[SteveRogers]

So what happens if the President has died before the electors meet. As it clear that both he/she were both reelected; what are the electors required to do then? Vote for the Vice President (in election) but now the serving president by succession,  but not election?

The electors would be free to vote for whoever they wanted. The party might convene their national committee to nominate an official replacement, but the electors wouldn't be bound by any such choice. Since the Vice President in your scenario would succeed to the presidency for the remainder of the lame duck period, the electors would presumably just cast their votes for the new sitting president. If for some odd reason enough electors voted for another candidate, the election could be thrown to the House if no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. The House would choose from among the top three candidates, so in this scenario that'd be (1) the Vice President (now President), (2) some other candidate from the President's party who received the support of some of the electors, and (3) the other party's candidate.

Assuming most of the electors cast their Presidential vote for the former VP, they would need to pick someone else to cast their VP vote for. That would likely be a free-for-all. If no candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the Senate would pick from among the top 2 candidates for VP. 

[heatmaster]

Couldn't just wait for the new president to invoke the 25th amendment and nominate a new a Vice President instead; I'm sure the electors would be conscious of the decisive nature of the election victory; as I understand it, each slate of electors, be it Democrat or Republican are dedicated partisans and considering if both houses of congress would be under control of the same party that the President and Vice President, I hardly believe the electors are going to get whimsical and invite a constitutional mess.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Then the Vice President-elect is sworn in on Inauguration Day, duh.

[bobloblaw]

Almost happened to JFK in 1960

[Slander and/or Libel]

Doesn't the Speaker's or the President Pro Tempore's ascension to Acting President depend on their resignation? They could simply decline it, right?

And if they did ascend, if they nominated and confirmed a Vice President, would that Vice President immediately become President?

[muon2]

Doesn't the Speaker's or the President Pro Tempore's ascension to Acting President depend on their resignation? They could simply decline it, right?

And if they did ascend, if they nominated and confirmed a Vice President, would that Vice President immediately become President?

This was a very real question in 2000. If the FL recount had not been resolved by SCOTUS, there were various legal groups investigating what might happen if FL electoral votes did not arrive for Congress to count them. Speaker Hastert was considering the possibility that he might be called upon to serve as Acting President until the FL situation was resolved. He was considering whether or not to accept if called upon.

nb. I'm going to delete your post in the ancient thread even though the title there might be more appropriate.

[Slander and/or Libel]

Makes sense.

What of the VP question? Would it make sense for an Acting President who wanted to remain Acting President to simply never appoint a VP?

[Earthling]

Couldn't he technically appoint himself as Vice President?

[bobloblaw]

Almost happened to JFK in 1960

[I support Sanders]

I think my scenario is more interesting:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=88095.0

In brief, a bomb goes off at the inauguration, killing the newly sworn in president and VP, as well as the Speaker and President Pro Temp.  At that point, the Cabinet still officially consists of holdovers from the previous administration, because Cabinet terms don't automatically expire on Jan. 20.  And so, the previous president's Secretary of State could arguably be sworn in for a full four year term.

So, even if the Republicans win in 2016, John Kerry can still become President.

[I support Sanders]

Almost happened to JFK in 1960

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBXLsOI1wFA

[Gog]

From my research the VP elect would be sworn in. It happened once very close in 1933.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Doesn't the Speaker's or the President Pro Tempore's ascension to Acting President depend on their resignation? They could simply decline it, right?

And if they did ascend, if they nominated and confirmed a Vice President, would that Vice President immediately become President?

This was a very real question in 2000. If the FL recount had not been resolved by SCOTUS, there were various legal groups investigating what might happen if FL electoral votes did not arrive for Congress to count them. Speaker Hastert was considering the possibility that he might be called upon to serve as Acting President until the FL situation was resolved. He was considering whether or not to accept if called upon.

nb. I'm going to delete your post in the ancient thread even though the title there might be more appropriate.

One of my professors said that Florida would have remained unallocated and the election would've gone to the House

[SteveRogers]

Doesn't the Speaker's or the President Pro Tempore's ascension to Acting President depend on their resignation? They could simply decline it, right?

And if they did ascend, if they nominated and confirmed a Vice President, would that Vice President immediately become President?

This was a very real question in 2000. If the FL recount had not been resolved by SCOTUS, there were various legal groups investigating what might happen if FL electoral votes did not arrive for Congress to count them. Speaker Hastert was considering the possibility that he might be called upon to serve as Acting President until the FL situation was resolved. He was considering whether or not to accept if called upon.

nb. I'm going to delete your post in the ancient thread even though the title there might be more appropriate.

One of my professors said that Florida would have remained unallocated and the election would've gone to the House

That's certainly one way it could have gone, although the likelihood of that outcome is debatable. There's a few ways that it could have gone down in congress had Bush v. Gore come out differently.

The majority in Bush v. Gore cited a risk that if a winner wasn't certified by the December 12th safe harbor deadline (the importance of which the Court greatly exagerated IMO), Florida could potentially submit two rival slates of electors to congress, one resulting from the Florida Supreme Court certifying Gore as the winner after a recount, and another appointed by the legislature and/ or certified by the Governor declaring Bush the winner. Then when the electoral votes were opened and counted before a joint session of congress, both chambers would have to decide which electors to count. It's certainly possible that they could decide to count neither, in which case the election would indeed have been thrown to the House. (Federal statutes passed after 1876 are supposed to govern which result congress respects in that scenario, defaulting to the electors certified by the state's executive, but it's an open question whether such a statute could constitutionally bind congress's decision).

Or even if you had just one slate of electors coming out of, for instance, a scenario in which the recount could not be completed by December 18 (when the electors had to actually meet to cast their votes) and the legislature appointed the electors itself, the result could have still been challenged in congress at the counting, and both houses would still have to vote on whether to count Florida's result.

This is actually an instance where it might have mattered whether the outgoing or incoming congress did the counting of the electoral votes. Assuming the new congress counted the electoral votes as usual in either of the above scenarios, the 50-50 Senate actually was actually in Democratic control via Vice President Gore's tie-breaking vote until January 20, 2001. If the House voted to count Bush as the winner while the Senate voted to accept a Gore slate/ reject a Bush slate, then you either end up with:
1. A compromise in which congress leaves Florida unallocated and the election is thrown to the Republican House, in which case Bush wins. OR
2. A scenario in which congress is deadlocked and cannot certify the Electoral Vote Count and has to resort to a more "exotic" compromise like a redux of 1876 where a special Electoral Commission decided which results to count.
If no compromise could be reached by January 20, then Hastert would indeed have been called upon to act as President.  But at that point the Senate would've come back into Republican control, and congress could then just certify Bush as the winner of Florida and thus the presidency, so the Hastert administration would be extremely short-lived

[rorschach]

Fascinating stuff.

I have further queries:

a) So if the Vice President-elect ascends to the presidency, I'm assuming the Vice President will be chosen in the same way Ford was in '74? Is this correct??

also

b) if the President-elect does die before inauguration, will he/she still count as President in the official records/annals? Say if the winner of 2016 dies, will he/she still be the 45th president or will the Vice-president elect who is officially inaugurated be 45??