[AuH2ORepublican]

This is the fifth and final post in The Volokh Conspiracy by Professor Brian Kalt on the need for Congress to use its powers under Section 4 of the 20th Amendment to adopt a mechanism to deal with the possibility of one of the presidential candidates in an election that gets thrown to the House (because no one got 270 electoral votes) dying after the Electoral College met but before the House elects the new president. His first four posts on the subject, all of which provide important background information and are worth reading, can be found here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/25/congress-must-act-now-on-section-4-of-the-20th-amendment/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/26/that-time-that-congress-was-proactive-in-1926/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/27/the-law-that-congress-should-pass/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/28/why-congress-slept/

[AuH2ORepublican]

*ping*

I urge you to contact your Representative and Senators and urge them to adopt legislation to eliminate the uncertainty that would exist if a presidential election was thrown into the House of Representatives (because no one got 270 electoral votes) and one of the three candidates being considered by the House were to die.

In particular, if you’re in Michigan’s 10th congressional district (in Michigan’s Thumb and parts of Macomb County) or if you’re a resident of Missouri, I would urge you to contact Congresswoman Candice Miller or Senator Roy Blunt, respectively, given that they chair the House and Senate committee with jurisdiction on the matter.

[kennedy]

An election cannot get thrown to the House unless there are at least three candidates who split the electoral votes. That just isn’t likely to happen.

The last time that a third party candidate got ANY electoral votes was George Wallace in 1968. Perot did not get any electoral votes in 1992 or 1996. Anderson did not get any electoral votes in 1980.

Perot did get enough popular votes to swing the election to Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but not enough to win any electoral votes in any state.

[kennedy]

I am concerned that any substitution law that might get enacted would be worse than the status quo.

Let’s say Trump, Clinton and Sanders run. Trump and Clinton each get 49.5% of the electoral votes and Sanders gets 1%. That throws it to the House. Then either Clinton or Sanders drops dead.

Under current law, the House would be limited to picking between the remaining two candidates. If any substitution law is enacted, then a majority of the Republicans and Democrats in the House could come up with a “consensus” uniparty candidate and give the Presidency to him.

[Elsie]

But what if the winner dies AFTER the election; but BEFORE the inauguration?