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To: sweetiepiezer; Jim Noble

QUESTION?

According to post 39:

Except that the President is not elected in November.

The President is elected when the President of the Senate opens the electoral votes and counts them in the presence of the full (new) House and Senate,?sitting in special Joint Session which will happen on January 3, 2017.
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And according to your post 45:

If a winning Presidential candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the counting of electoral votes in Congress and the inauguration, the Vice President elect will become President
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Question: What happens if the president-elect dies or becomes incapacitated between Nov 8, 2016 and January 3, 2017


59 posted on 08/17/2016 7:02:47 PM PDT by thouworm ("To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth"---Theodore Roosevelt)
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To: thouworm
Between November 8, 2016 and December 19, 2016 there is no "President-elect", because the Electoral College has not met and voted. Realistically, if the "winner" died before December 19, the DNC or the RNC would issue instructions to their chosen electors about what to do. If the "winner" did NOT die, but (let's say, for example) was indicted for racketeering, bribery, tax evasion, money laundering and conspiracy, I don't know what would happen.

After December 19 and before January 3, there will be a President-elect and if he/she died, the Vice-President elect would become President-elect.

For those with tinfoil hats looking for loopholes, consider this language:

"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.

So, the Constitution presumes a situation wherein the Electoral College meets, votes, someone has a majority but "fails to qualify". It also provides for a situation wherein BOTH the President-elect AND VP-elect "fail to qualify", in which scenario Congress appoints the acting President OR "declares "the manner in which" the acting President shall be selected.

I suppose the election of a 34-year old would meet these criteria, the VP-elect would serve as President until the President-Elect's 35th birthday.

But the other two qualifications - natural-born citizenship and 14 years residence - can't be used in this way, and it's a lot of verbiage to cover a birthday.

So, what about it FReepers? Are there other ways a President and Vice-President Elect could "fail to qualify"? Can Congress declare "failure to qualify" and ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Black Lives Matter, to choose the President?

60 posted on 08/18/2016 4:30:41 AM PDT by Jim Noble (The polls can have a strong influence on the weak-minded)
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