1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to “President Pelosi” as Suggested by President Trump.

President Trump again asserted today that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) would become President if mail-in voting creates chaos and they can’t determine who won the election.

2) The answer? Maybe. But it skips over a couple of key steps.

The Speaker is second in line to the Presidency after Vice President. So, if something happened to the President and Vice President, the Speaker would become President.

So, President Pelosi, right? Not so fast.

3) Hse/Senate convene at noon on Jan 3, under the Constitution, forming the new Congress. The President’s supposition of “President Pelosi” presumes that, A) Dems retain control of the Hse (which is likely will), and B) Pelosi is elected Speaker (which is probably the case, too).

4) But again, there’s a missed step.

The “new” House and Senate, always convene, in January to ratify the results of the electoral college. The House and Senate huddle in a Joint Session of Congress in the House chamber and certify the results.

5) If there is any challenge to a state’s electoral slate, the Hse/Senate recess the Jt Session of Congress, convening singularly as the Hse/Senate to settled the contested slate of electoral votes from a given state. Hse/Senate then meet again in the Jt Session to finish the job

6) Officials reported voting irregularities in Ohio in 2004. The late-Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) raised the issue about Ohio’s electoral slate during the January, 2005 Joint Meeting of Congress certifying the electoral college.

7) The House and Senate met separately to debate Ohio’s slate. The House and Senate eventually found the Ohio electoral votes to be in order. President George W. Bush secured a second term in the White House.

8) But, if there is a deadlock in the electoral college, the Founders designed a little-known mechanism to decide who’s President.

It’s something called a “Contingent Election.” It’s outlined in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution and updated by the 12 Amendment.

9) The U.S. has only witnessed two contingent elections for president in its history. The first occasion followed the 1800 mayhem and again in 1824.

10) If no candidate harnesses an absolute majority in the electoral college, the Constitution pitches the election for President into the House of Representatives – and the choice for Vice President is left up to the Senate.

11) In the House, each state votes as a delegation among the top three electoral vote getters. Meaning one vote for each state. California is the same as South Dakota.

12) The top 3 electoral college vote getters are eligible for consideration for president on the Hse flr in a contingent election. Imagine the Hse settling this between President Trump, Joe Biden and, maybe…..Kanye West (!)….should the latter somehow marshal an electoral vote?

13) But the vote for President by state delegation in the House of Representatives introduces an entirely new dynamic into the process. The exact breakdown of each state’s House delegation won’t be known until after the November general election.

14) And note, the first contingent election, which selected President Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr and sitting President John Adams, consumed seven days and 36 ballots.

So what happens if the contingent election drags on past inauguration day – January 20 at noon et?

15) There is a very small window in which to settle an electoral college dispute – between the start of the new Congress in January and inauguration day on January 20? The country can’t operate without a President.

16) Well, there’s a contingency for that, too. Believe it or not, the sitting Vice President from the old administration becomes Acting President until the House mediates the electoral college issue.

17) In other words, in this strange world of hypotheticals, Vice President Pence has a chance to perhaps serve as President of the United States…at least for a few days.
Granted, a lot of this is extra-Constitutional turf. There is some precedent for all of this. But not a lot