[EL] What if election is still tied up in court somehow on Jan 20?

[Marty Lederman]

I was assuming that the scenario is not that no one has a majority of
electoral votes (as in 1800), but instead that one or more states submit
two competing slates of electoral votes, and the House concludes that Biden
& Harris are elected with more than 270, whereas the Senate concludes that
Trump & Pence have been elected with more than 270, notwithstanding the
directive in 3 USC 15 that the governor's slate shall be counted when
there's such a disagreement.

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 4:13 PM Lori A Ringhand <ringhand at uga.edu> wrote:

> I am curious if others agree this scenario would result in the Speaker as
> acting president. If the House cannot reach resolution on the President
> elect, but the Senate *does *announce its choice regarding the Vice
> President elect, then doesn't the 12th + the 20th make the VP elect the
> acting president?
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on
> behalf of Richard Winger <richardwinger at yahoo.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 10, 2020 4:08 PM
> *To:* Stephanie Singer <sfsinger at campaignscientific.com>; Marty Lederman <
> Martin.Lederman at law.georgetown.edu>
> *Cc:* Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] What if election is still tied up in court somehow on
> Jan 20?
>
> [EXTERNAL SENDER - PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY]
>
> It's the newly elected House.  That change was made with the 20th
> amendment in 1933.
>
> Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
>
>
> On Thursday, September 10, 2020, 11:53:22 AM PDT, Marty Lederman <
> martin.lederman at law.georgetown.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Yes, it'd be Nancy Pelosi--unless the Court were to hold that the
> Presidential Succession Act is unconstitutional insofar as it prescribes
> congressional members in the line of succession.  (I don't think the
> argument against its constitutionality is compelling, but others disagree.)
>
> More likely, I think, that the Court would resolve any Senate/House split
> before January 20, much as it would prefer not to do so.
>
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 2:44 PM Stephanie Singer <
> sfsinger at campaignscientific.com> wrote:
>
> I’ve heard — from an unreliable source — that if the election is still
> tied up in court on Jan 20, 2021, then there will be a vacancy in both
> Presidential and Vice Presidential offices, which means that (per the Presidential
> Succession Act
> <https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Presidential_Succession_Act.htm>) the
> Speaker of the House would serve as President until the vacancy was
> resolved.
>
> I’d love to know from the experts whether this is a conceivable scenario
> and, if so, the Speaker of which House -- the newly elected House? And if
> so, what if some of the election contests for the new House are still tied
> up in court?
>
> —Stephanie
>
>
> Stephanie Singer <https://www.pdx.edu/profile/stephanie-singer>
> Research Assistant Professor, Portland State University
> Former Chair, Philadelphia County Board of Elections
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> https://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>
>
>
> --
> Marty Lederman
> Georgetown University Law Center
> 600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
> Washington, DC 20001
> 202-662-9937
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> https://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>


-- 
Marty Lederman
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-662-9937
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20200910/1adb158f/attachment.html>