“The slate of electors could vote for whomever they wish.
Absolutely false. They have to pick from the top 3 remaining.....and the implication is the top 3 who actually received Electoral votes, but only McCain (other than Obama) actually won ellectoral votes. Therefore: McCain, with Biden as VP, would be the only possible outcome.”
You are correct, IMHO, but by a slightly different method:
There are 538 + 538 = 1076 possible elctors for the DEMS and GOP.
Obama/Biden is ahead at this point something like 350-188. 350 Obama/Biden electors, 188 McCain/Palin electors.
If Obama is DQ’d by SCOTUS, then HIS 350 electors would be DQ’d and replaced with McCain’s 350 electors.
Those 350 electors, along with McCain’s 188 original electors would presumably vote 538-0 for McCain.
Now, Biden IS qualified and (presumably) would make the case to SCOTUS that his election was valid. If so, the 350 original Obama/Biden electors would be able to vote for him and the vote for VP would be 350-188 for Biden.
Therfore, in an unusual twist, a total of 888 electoral voters would have voted.
538 McCain/Palin electors and 350 Obama/Biden electors (voting only in the kewpie prize category - that is, VP).
It's the House of Representatives that must pick among the top 3 electoral vote getters. The electors, at least in 26 states, can vote for whom they chose. In the other 24, which by law nominally require the elector to vote as pledged, probably have escape clauses to cover the death or inability to serve of the person they are pledged to vote for, whether those clauses cover the situation of a candidate found to be ineligible, would have to be determined on a case by case basis.