Besides, qualifying, pertains to what is necessary to become President, this includes eligibility requirements.
If, as you say, no one received enough electoral college votes to “qualify”, how do you explain the existence of a “President elect”. The section directs the President elect to “qualify”, or fail to qualify. If there is a President elect, then the electoral vote part has been completed. This “qualification” then applies to someone called the “President elect.”
Besides, qualifying, pertains to what is necessary to become President, this includes eligibility requirements.
President-elect of the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
President-elect of the United States is the title used for an incoming President of the United States in the liminal period between the general election on Election Day in November and noon eastern standard time on Inauguration Day, January 20th, during which he is not in office yet. The title is used for the apparent winner and is finalized when the Electoral College votes in December and when their ballots are counted by a joint session of Congress in January. If a sitting President has won re-election, he is not referred to as a “President-elect” because he is already in office and is not waiting to become president. If a new President is scheduled to enter, then the current-standing one is said to hold the office on a lame-duck basis.
Constitutional criteria
Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, along with the Twelfth and Twentieth Amendments govern the election of the U.S. President. The members of the Electoral College are elected by the people in November once every four years in a general election; on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, electors convene in their respective state capitals (and the District of Columbia) and in turn elect the President of the United States. The electoral ballots are counted in a joint session of Congress in early January (on January 6 as required by 3 U.S. Code, Chapter 1 or an alternative date set by statute) and if the ballots are accepted without objections, the candidate winning at least 270 electoral votes is announced the President-elect by the incumbent Vice President, in his or her capacity as President of the Senate.
Electoral College role
No constitutional provision or federal law requires electors to vote according to the results of their states’ popular vote, though some states bind their electors to their pledges by state law. Historically, there have been only a few instances of electors not casting their ballots for the candidates to whom they were pledged, and such instances have never resulted in changing the final outcome of a presidential election.
Congressional reports
Two congressional reports found that the President-elect is the eventual winner of the majority of electoral ballots cast in December. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress, in its 2004 report “Presidential and Vice Presidential Succession: Overview and Current Legislation,” discussed the question of when candidates who have received a majority of electoral votes become President-elect. The report notes that the constitutional status of the President-elect is disputed:
Some commentators doubt whether an official President- and Vice President-elect exist prior to the electoral votes being counted and announced by Congress on January 6, maintaining that this is a problematic contingency lacking clear constitutional or statutory direction. Others assert that once a majority of electoral votes has been cast for one ticket, then the recipients of these votes become the President- and Vice President-elect, notwithstanding the fact that the votes are not counted and certified until the following January 6.
The CRS report quotes the 1933 U.S. House committee report accompanying the Twentieth Amendment as endorsing the latter view:
It will be noted that the committee uses the term “President elect” in its generally accepted sense, as meaning the person who has received the majority of electoral votes, or the person who has been chosen by the House of Representatives in the event that the election is thrown into the House. It is immaterial whether or not the votes have been counted, for the person becomes the President elect as soon as the votes are cast.
Both reports make clear that becoming President-elect is contingent upon winning the majority of electoral votes.
President-elect succession
Scholars have noted that the national committees of the Democratic and Republican parties have adopted rules for selecting replacement candidates in the event of a nominee’s death, either before or after the general election. If the apparent winner of the general election dies before the Electoral College votes in December the electors probably would endorse whatever new nominee their national party selects as a replacement. If the apparent winner dies between the College’s December vote and its counting in Congress in January, the Twelfth Amendment stipulates that all electoral ballots cast shall be counted, presumably even those for a dead candidate. The U.S. House committee reporting on the proposed Twentieth Amendment said the “Congress would have ‘no discretion’ [and] ‘would declare that the deceased candidate had received a majority of the votes.’”
In cases where a President has not been chosen by January 20 or the President-elect “fails to qualify,” the Vice President-elect becomes Acting President on January 20 until there is a qualified President. If the President-elect dies before noon January 20, the Twentieth Amendment states the Vice President-elect becomes President. In cases where there is no President-elect or Vice president-elect, the Amendment also gives the Congress the authority to declare an Acting President until such time as there is a President or Vice president. At this point the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 would apply, with the office of the Presidency going to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, followed by the President pro tempore of the Senate and various Cabinet officers.
The closest instance of a Vice President-elect becoming President came just 23 days after the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment. On February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara fired a gun at President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but missed, instead hitting Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. If the assassination attempt on Roosevelt had been successful then, pursuant to Section 3 of the amendment, Vice President-elect John Nance Garner would have been sworn in as President on Inauguration Day (March 4, 1933).
Presidential transitions
Recent Presidents-elect have assembled Presidential transition teams to prepare for a smooth transfer of power following the inauguration. Outgoing Presidents have cooperated with the President-elect on important policy matters during the last two months of the President’s term to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of operations that have significant national interests. Before the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, which moved the start of the Presidential term to January, the President-elect did not assume office until March, four months after the popular election.
The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 authorizes the Administrator of the General Services Administration to certify, even before the December vote of the Electoral College, the apparent winner of the November general election as the President-elect for the purposes of receiving federal transition funding, office space and communications services prior to the beginning of the new administration on January 20.
The President-elect assumes office as the next President of the United States of America upon the expiration of the term of the previous office-holder at noon on January 20. This procedure has been the subject of many misinterpretations and urban legends, such as the myth of David Rice Atchison’s one-day-long presidency, which is not only predicated upon false assumptions but is also logically flawed. Taking the formal oath of office does not affect the automatic accession to and occupation of the office of the presidency, which, in the case of the U.S. President, proceeds, ipso facto, from the expiration of the predecessor’s term.
Presidents-elect and Vice Presidents-elect receive protection from the United States Secret Service, but since the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, they already have received such protection during the election campaign ever since.