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Yeah thats one thing I never understood entirely. Is there any "law" or rule that states how the electors vote or can they vote for whoever they want? Like for an example we wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden Bill Gates is president?
The US Constitution has a certain list that is followed determining the order of succession. If, hypothetically, Obama was hit by a truck tomorrow, then Biden would become President on January 20th, since he's the vice-president elect. In turn, if something would happen to Biden, then the Speaker of the House would be the next in line to become President.
I hope not... :oI know what happens if a sitting president is incapacitated, but now that McCain has conceded, and the electoral college hasn't met yet, what would happen if Obama got hit by a truck tomorrow?
Anyone who wants to twist this perversely can just bite me. It's a serious question. Had McCain won, I'd have asked the same question.
They can vote for anyone they want to.
Originally it wasn't even intended that people would vote for Electors.
State legislatures were supposed to appoint a group of Electors and send them off to Washington to meet. The Electors were then going to decide among themselves who the President was.
States decided to choose Electors based on popular ballot and so forth on their own.
Er...doesn't that sound like a terrible system? It's open to awful, perfectly legal abuse.
I know what happens if a sitting president is incapacitated, but now that McCain has conceded, and the electoral college hasn't met yet, what would happen if Obama got hit by a truck tomorrow?
Anyone who wants to twist this perversely can just bite me. It's a serious question. Had McCain won, I'd have asked the same question.
Er...doesn't that sound like a terrible system? It's open to awful, perfectly legal abuse.
I would think the Electorals would have a limit on who they could vote for.
IMO Biden would be the choice, simple chain of comand. But with the perosn they
have said they would vote for gone, they could actually be free agents.
Couldn't they elect someone that didn't even run?
COuldn't they elect Michael Moore? or Soros?
Death or unsuitability of a candidate
The U.S. constitution grants each state the right to appoint electors in a manner chosen by that state. While it is common to think of the electoral votes impersonally, as mere numbers, the college is in fact made up of real people (usually party regulars of the party whose candidate wins each state) with the capacity to adapt to unusual situations. That capacity might be particularly important if, for example, a candidate were to die or become in some other way unsuitable to serve as President or Vice President. Advocates of the current system argue that these electors could then choose a suitable replacement (who would most likely come from the same party of the candidate who won the election) more competently than could the general voting public. Furthermore, the time period during which such a death or the onset of such an unsuitability might call for such an adaptation extends, under the Electoral College system, from before Election Day (many states cannot change ballots at a late stage) until the day the electors vote (the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December). Thus, until the electors cast their votes, it is not a federal issue, per se, but a state's rights issue and state laws (should) regulate the situation. In Virginia, for instance, the law clearly states that the electors must vote for the name of the candidate who they represent on the ballot and therefore these electors are not able to adapt to unusual situations.
In the election of 1872, Democratic candidate Horace Greeley did in fact die before the meeting of the Electoral College, resulting in Democratic disarray; the electors who were to have voted for Greeley split their votes across several candidates, including three votes cast for the deceased Greeley. However, President Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican incumbent, had already won an absolute majority of electors. Because it was the death of a losing candidate, there was no pressure to agree on a replacement candidate. There has never been a case of a candidate of the winning party dying.
In the election of 1912, after the Republicans had renominated President Taft and Vice President Sherman, Sherman died shortly before the election, too late to change the names on the ballot, thus causing Sherman to be listed posthumously. That ticket finished third behind the Democrats (Woodrow Wilson) and the Progressives (Theodore Roosevelt), and the 8 electoral votes that Sherman would have received were cast for Nicholas M. Butler.
What a great question. I have wondered what the protocol is if the president-elect doesn't make it to inauguration day, but to wonder what happens if the electoral college hasn't even had a chance to place their vote. I have to look into this now!I know what happens if a sitting president is incapacitated, but now that McCain has conceded, and the electoral college hasn't met yet, what would happen if Obama got hit by a truck tomorrow?..
OK, some things just shouldn't even be joked about!!COuldn't they elect Michael Moore?...
Yeah thats one thing I never understood entirely. Is there any "law" or rule that states how the electors vote or can they vote for whoever they want? Like for an example we wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden Bill Gates is president?
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