What happens if the president-elect dies before inauguration?

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If the President "Elect" has not been "inaugurated/Sworn In", then the Vice President "Elect" would not become President.....

The Primary function of the Vice President is to Step in as President, should the "INAUGURATED" President Die, become incapacitated, or unable to perform his duties for any other reason (i.e. Impeached and told to step down).......

Therefore, when someone is Elected on November 4th he will not "OFFICIALLY" become president until inaugurated in January 2009 when he is "Sworn in AND takes the OATH of Office" ......if he were to die before being inaugurated in Jan. 2009 , then he was never "OFFICIALLY" President, and therefore the Vice President Elect has no one to step in for.


Think of it this way, if you were engaged to be married and sometime between your engagement, and the actual day you are “Officially” married , your partner dies, you could not collect any benefits of your "mate" because the oath to one another had not yet taken place.

The same holds True for the Vice President “Elect“, he does not receive the benefits of the Office because his Running “mate” never took the oath. .....Again, there was never anyone “Sworn in“, for him to Replace.


This has never happened before, and there is not an official protocol on who would step in, or if there would be a second election …..However, what would possibly happen is The Chairman of the respective party would more than likely insist the VP running mate should be "APPOINTED" as the president-elect. However the opposition Party would strongly object, So unfortunately Mr. Bush could remain President until the parties could agree on a solution.

But keep in mind that,Yesterday Obama won the “popular vote“, NOT the Electoral Vote, so technically Obama has NOT “officially” been elected President until the “Electoral College” votes in mid-December 2008.

Although if you read the “PATRIOT ACT” in which Bush enacted AFTER Sept 11th, it clearly states that in the event of “ANY” Terrorist attack , Economic collapse, OR...... CIVIL UNREST there would be Marshall Law, and there would be no elections or Switching of the President until the Crisis was past.


PS.....This similar scenario was written about in the book "Executive Orders" by Tom Clancy. Great Book, You Should read it.

Hope this Helps.

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Girl In the Know is WRONG about the 20th amendment. It does apply under this scenario. It says:

"If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President."

In other words, Barack Obama will officially become the President elect on December 15th when the Electoral College votes. And Joe Biden will become the Vice President elect. Per the 20th Amendment, if, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President (here, January 20th), the President elect (Obama) shall have died, the Vice President elect (Biden) shall become President.

Between now and January 20th, Bush remains President and the normal line of succession applies (Cheney, Pelosi, etc.). On January 20th, Obama steps in. But if he were to die between December 15th and January 20th, the President elect "shall have died" "at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President." Section 3 of the 20th Amendment would apply and Biden would step in. There is no other possible reading of the amendment. After January 20th, there is no President elect or Vice President elect. The very reason for the quoted language in Section 3 of the 20th Amendment is to deal with this exact scenario.

Now, if Obama were to die before December 15th, he would not technically be the President elect. This scenario presents a much bigger mess. Some speculate that the Electoral College voters would be free to select Biden, and would probably do so to reflect the will of the public. No matter what happened, there would potentially be legal challenges resulting in the Supreme Court deciding who gets to be President (kind of like in 2000). Hopefully this scenario never becomes reality and we do not have to find out....Show more

If the President-elect dies after the Electoral college votes (Dec 20th this year) then the Vice-President Elect is inaugurated as the President.

If the President-elect dies after the general election and before the Electoral College votes then congress by law may select the President

When you really think about it - Yesterday we elected the members of the electoral college.

This comes from the twentieth Ammendment - section 3:


Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. 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; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. ...Show more

Jeff Greenfield of CBS wrote a novel about that once, and did some research into the subject. He discovered: it's a big constitutional mess. The timing (before/after electoral votes were counted) might be part of the situation....Show more

the 3rd section of the 20th amendment states that in the event of the president elect dying before inaguration, the vice president elect shall be inagurated as president and serve for the full term won by the president elect. ...Show more