If elections are cancelled, Bush can't be President indefinitely.

[MallRat]

Unfortunately, if you want to get really tinfoily, Dick Cheney could.

U.S. Constitution
Article II, Section 1:
Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected...

Amendment XX, Section 1:
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January...

Amendment XX, Section 3 (the part that was not superceded by Amendment XXV):
If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, 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...


So if I'm reading this right...

The Constitution only says that an election must be held to choose a NEW President. But if the electoral process is suspended and the electors don't have an opportunity to choose the next President, Vice-President Cheney becomes Acting President on January 20, 2005, since Bush's 4-year term must end on that day whether he likes it or not.

Until that election is held, Cheney would remain "acting" President.

:scared:

-MR

(reposted from another thread)

[enfield collector]

1. if elections are cancelled then that pesky

constitution thing will surely be suspended as well.

[HuckleB]

2. Why do I think that this whole issue a Rove strategy to keep us occupied?

It sure feels like it.

Eyes on the prize, folks. Let's get back to the campaign.

[tom_paine]

10. You might be right, but no one is forgetting the duty to the campaign

[olddem43]

3. It probably doesn't mean that -

Cheney would not be the "VP Elect" at that point, unless the electors had voted. I would expect there would be a constitutional crisis, and the Supreme Court would put in whoever they wanted. Sorta like last time.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

4. Congress could act too...

They could just set election day later. Or postpone the electors actually voting, so that there would not be an official president until they get around to setting the day.

"Article II, Section 1
...The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States."

I didn't look at all the amendments, though.

[MallRat]

5. Yup. Congress can postpone the election.

But when January 20, 2005 rolls around, if there hasn't been an election, Bush cannot remain in office.

-MR

[Rosco T.]

7. President Dick F'ing Halliburton.... oh my ghod.... n/m

[patdem]

6. Didn't the SCOTUS say there is no Constitutional RIGHT to vote???

I do not recall the exact phrase or the reason it was stated, I only noted the statement. Google, here I go!

[MallRat]

12. The only things guaranteed by the US Constitution are ELECTORS.

How that slate of electors is chosen is a state-by-state issue.

-MR

[OKNancy]

8. Not quite

The amendment did not cover the failure of both a President elect and a Vice President elect to qualify. The latter half of the final sentence empowers Congress to meet such a contingency.

This amendment assumes elections. ( The VP -elect will be either Cheney or Edwards)

[Devils Advocate NZ]

9. Wait a minute...

I am not 100% sure of this, but wasn't the argument in 2000 that the people didn't have the right to elect the president, only the electoral college could do that.

And wasn't it also said that each state can determine for itself how to appoint representatives to the electoral college, even going so far as not having elections at all but having the reps appointed by the Governors?

Am I right so far?

So how would cancelling elections change the states right to appoint the electoral college reps? Surely if security was such a concern, the states themselves could chose to appoint the electoral college directly without an election.

If all this is true, how many states are controlled by Dems, and how many by Repubs?

11. If elections are cancelled, the terrorists have won

I've said this before and I'll keep repeating it.

You decide who the terrorists are.
This can only happen if we let it happen.
What to do?
Well for starters do what these two DUer's suggest --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...