'Finally I shall resign from my position as President of the United States of America. We will soon have new elections in which every vote is counted, in which democracy will really work. Until then I shall hand over the power to the senate.'
Accoring to the constitution should the President resign the Vice-President takes over. The line of succesion then goes to the Speaker to the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, then to the cabinet positions in the following order Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General, Sec'y of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health & Human Services, Housing & Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education and Veterans Affairs.
There is no provision in the Constitution for the President the call new Elections as we don't use the European Parlimentary system that puts the party (or coalition) that wins the general election in direct control of the executive branch.
After the Kennedy assassination an amendment was passed to allow the President to appoint a Vice-President should the office happen to be unfilled by death or resignation or the Vice Presidents accession to President. When Nixon's VP Spiro Agnew was forced to resign, Gerald Ford was appointed to take his place. When Nixon resigned Ford became the first unelected president in US history.
A lot of peopl don't like the Electoral College system but it was enacted for several reasons - the first of with was that the founding fathers never expected the US to have just a two party system, they figured on several candidates and had planned for that eventuality. Secondly they had wanted to make sure every state or at least region counted in the election and that the candidate didn't just concentrate their efforts on a couple of states. Without an electoral college system a candidate could easily win an election with the votes of a few big cities.
As bad as the fiasco in Florida was, the system worked even when there wasn't much in the way of legal or historical precedent to go on. (the last president to win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote was in the 1800s) Much of this had to be improvised on the spot, but it was in the open for all to see. And nobody had to get the support of the Army like in many countries. Power was passed more or less without incedent.
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just so you know...
Date: 2001-10-01 01:14 pm (UTC)Accoring to the constitution should the President resign the Vice-President takes over. The line of succesion then goes to the Speaker to the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, then to the cabinet positions in the following order Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General, Sec'y of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health & Human Services, Housing & Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education and Veterans Affairs.
There is no provision in the Constitution for the President the call new Elections as we don't use the European Parlimentary system that puts the party (or coalition) that wins the general election in direct control of the executive branch.
After the Kennedy assassination an amendment was passed to allow the President to appoint a Vice-President should the office happen to be unfilled by death or resignation or the Vice Presidents accession to President. When Nixon's VP Spiro Agnew was forced to resign, Gerald Ford was appointed to take his place. When Nixon resigned Ford became the first unelected president in US history.
A lot of peopl don't like the Electoral College system but it was enacted for several reasons - the first of with was that the founding fathers never expected the US to have just a two party system, they figured on several candidates and had planned for that eventuality. Secondly they had wanted to make sure every state or at least region counted in the election and that the candidate didn't just concentrate their efforts on a couple of states. Without an electoral college system a candidate could easily win an election with the votes of a few big cities.
As bad as the fiasco in Florida was, the system worked even when there wasn't much in the way of legal or historical precedent to go on. (the last president to win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote was in the 1800s) Much of this had to be improvised on the spot, but it was in the open for all to see. And nobody had to get the support of the Army like in many countries. Power was passed more or less without incedent.