President Donald Trump told followers last week that the Speaker of the House of Representatives could succeed him in office if the election result is not known until December.
“There’s a theory that, if you did not have it at the end of the year, the crazy Nancy Pelosi would become president,” he said.
Pelosi is in the presidential line of succession, but Trump’s have the wrong timing and such an outcome is highly unlikely in any case.
Most presidential elections run so smoothly that little attention is paid to how they actually work (with the last exception of 2000) – and to the fact that only 538 people vote directly for president and vice president. They are the presidential voters who make up the so-called Electoral College.
The number of elections each state gets is equal to its seats in the U.S. House plus two for its U.S. senators. California has the most, with 55. Seven of the most sparsely populated states and the District of Columbia each have three.
Before the election, each state political party elects a leash of people to act as presidential candidates if their candidate wins. So when voters go to the polls, they actually choose between different voters for voters. Some states even print their names on the ballot along with the candidates.
In 48 states and Washington, DC, the popular vote determines which list of voters is elected, winner takes everything. In Maine and Nebraska, some voters are elected in individual congressional districts, some by the general vote. A total of 33 states require voters to vote for the winner of the popular vote, and the U.S. Supreme Court in July upheld state laws banning what are known as “religious elections,” which deny voting for the winner of the popular vote at the election University.
Voters will meet in December to cast their ballots, which will be tabled for a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, the day of the actual presidential vote.
The Constitution gives Congress authority to set the date for the general election, which is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November – November 3 this year. Congress has also stipulated that Electoral College meet the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. That will be December 14 this year – 41 days after the general election.
Federal law also stipulates that if a state elects its final electorate until six days before the Electoral College convenes, Congress must consider those votes valid on the January count day. This is known as the “safe haven” deadline. The Supreme Court said Florida’s desire to comply was a major reason the court stopped the vote it counted in 2000, making George W. Bush the winner.
If a state wants to benefit from that provision, it has only 35 days after the election to decide who won.
In the last recent elections, the results were clear within several hours after the polls closed. But it will certainly be different this time around, with estimates that more than half of the votes will be cast by post. In many states, envelopes with those ballots are not even opened until the election is close. And before they are counted, they need to be checked to make sure they are valid cast.
“If you can not start the process early, then you are pretty sure, with the number of votes that states will have, that they will not have the results for a week or so,” said Rick Pildes, an election law expert. at New York University Law School. “That problem drives me crazy.”
State laws provide for a period after the election to officially certify the outcome, through a process known as the voting channel. It is during this time that bills can be triggered by very narrow outcomes, and candidates can submit their legal challenges in voting and counting procedures.
But even if that process takes several weeks, Ned Foley, who directs the suffrage program at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, said, “that would not be a delay because election results are not official for up to a month. after the election. “
The new Congress will be sworn in on January 3 and meet three days later in a joint session to count the votes. If a state succeeds in meeting the deadline of safe haven, its votes must be counted. But even if that deadline was missed, Congress could still count an electoral vote of a state. If one member of Congress objects to the counting of a particular vote, both the Second Chamber and the First Chamber shall vote on what to do.
But what if there is no clear winner in the Electoral College vote?
The Constitution provides the answer: The House of Representatives elects the President, with each state, not every member, casting one vote. The Senate elects the Vice President.
Only one president took office under the current Electoral College system – John Quincy Adams in 1825. In 1877, Congress set up a special commission to resolve disputes over votes in three states, resulting in a victory for Rutherford B. Hayes. . It was this dispute that led to the establishment of the safe harbor facility.
The issue of no clear winner in the popular vote would be one for each individual state in determining their electorate.
There could be no clear winner in the Electoral College vote if, as in the Adams election, no candidate got a majority or if the vote is very close and some election votes are contested.
Under the constitution, the four-year terms for president and vice president end on Jan. 20. If Congress is unable to elect the winner at that time, the Presidency Act will step up. First in line to serve as acting president is the Speaker of the House, now Nancy Pelosi, succeeded by the pro-Senate president of the Senate, who is now Charles Grassley of Iowa, followed by members of the Cabinet .
But they might be reluctant to accept the role, as they would be required to resign from Congress to take the position and could only serve until Congress finally decided who would become president.
That there is no way Trump’s scenario could explode at the end of December, and Pelosi could not become acting president until January 20, a highly unlikely outcome.
