I’m not an expert, but I’m somewhat familiar with the Constitution. The 20th Amendment says that if the President-Elect should die before taking office, the Vice President-Elect will take office as President on Inauguration Day.
A little historical background. After winning the election of 1932, President-Elect FDR was nearly assassinated while in Florida. Chicago mayor Cermak in fact died in the attack. There was some speculation that had FDR died, Hoover would receive a 2nd term. So the 20th took care of that as well as moving inauguration day from March to January.
> The 20th Amendment says that if the President-Elect should die before taking office, the Vice President-Elect will take office as President on Inauguration Day.
But when does a candidate officially become the “President-Elect” ? I would say not until Congress accepts and counts the electoral votes. Votes for a dead man should not count, because he is not eligible. Therefore, no one would have a majority of the votes for president, and the election would fall to the House.
An argument could be made that the VP elect should immediately receive the votes that should have gone to the deceased candidate, but I’m not sure if that is supported by the language of the 20th Amendment. And if that is so, the position of VP would apparently need to be voted on by the Senate.
bttt