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My very uneducated guess-- :)

Assume GWB is elected on Nov 2.

There are several time periods in question to consider if the president-elect dies before inauguration.
1. Between election day and the "meeting of the electors".
2. Between the "meeting of the electors" and the house session to read/tally the electors' votes.
3. Between the house pronouncement and Jan 20.

Time period 1 (between election day and meeting of the electors): The electors are free to vote how they wish. I'm sure the Republican Party would try to draft a candidate and organize the electors to vote for him/her.

Time period 2 (between meeting of electors and house session): The house receives the votes and determines that the "winner" has since deceased. Since no living person has the required 270 votes, the house would vote among the 3 highest electoral vote recipients. This could ensure a Kerry win since he may be the only other person with electoral votes--unless an elector played games with his vote and voted for another person.

Time period 3 (between house session and inauguration): If the president-elect dies, then would Cheney get inaugurated? (Then next in line is the current Speaker, etc.) I think the Supreme Court would have to get involved here.

Those are my guesses. Those more knowledgeable, please feel free to correct me.

This is sick speculation but anytime prior to Jan 20, Cheney becomes President regardless of what has transpired with electors or congress. He holds that position until at least January 20.

Arent President and Vice President now elected as a team meaning that Cheney has as many electoral votes as Bush. I know in the early days that was not true and we had cases where the President and Vice President were from different parties.

I cant imagine anyone standing for Bush winning the election and then because he was killed, the opposition party took office. No way that would fly, especially if it wasnt close.

Option 2 is worrisome. Assuming Bush wins with at least 1 vote to spare, they will have one of his electors vote for Cheney instead to prevent this (then the House would pick Cheney).

Of course, if 4 Kerry electors vote 2 each for two random Democrats, this won't work, Kerry and the 2 random Democrats will get voted on by the House instead. If this happens, and Bush gets assassinated between the electors voting and their votes being read, I don't want to think about what will happen.