Waiting for results? Here's some nuts and bolts

What if it’s discovered there was massive vote fraud or errors in a state that tipped the balance?
In all likelihood, this scenario would lead to an intense court battle. The litigation could reach the Supreme Court as the Florida election controversy did in 2000.

But Congress could also decide the validity of the electoral votes from any given state when it meets in joint session to count the electoral votes on Jan. 6.

Can the winner of the presidential election decide to change his vice presidential candidate after Nov. 4?
The Constitution doesn’t seem to allow for that. The Twelfth Amendment implies that the person listed on state ballots at the vice presidential nominee would be the vice president if he or she won the most electoral votes.

Can an elector pledged to vote for a candidate cast his or her vote for someone else?
Yes, but that has rarely happened. Since the first election in 1789, 11 electors out of more than 21,000 electors have decided to vote for a presidential candidate other than the one to whom they were pledged.

If a the winner of the presidential election falls gravely ill or starts exhibiting signs of madness right after Nov. 4, can the electors change their minds before they meet in each of the state capitols on Dec. 15?
In theory, yes. Only five states have laws punishing electors for not casting their vote for the person to whom they were pledged. So electors could cast their vote for someone other than the winner of the Nov. 4 balloting.

What happens if the electoral vote ends up in a 269-269 tie, or in a multi-candidate field, if no candidate gets 270 electoral votes?
The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution says that if no candidate gets a majority of the electors then the House of Representatives shall choose a president from among the top three vote-getters.

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In these circumstances, each state’s delegation in the House would have one vote. So, for example, California’s 53 members of the House would caucus and vote as a bloc. Since there are more Democratic House members from California than Republican members, California’s one vote would go to the Democratic presidential candidate.

Has a president-elect ever died before taking the oath of office and, if so, how was that situation handled?
No, that has never happened. The closest it has come to happening was on Feb. 13, 1933, when a former bricklayer and transient Giuseppe Zangara fired shots at President-elect Franklin Roosevelt just after he finished giving a speech in Miami.

Zangara missed Roosevelt, but one of his shots hit Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who subsequently died from his wounds.

If the president-elect died, the national committee of the president-elect’s political party would meet and choose a new nominee, and thus a new president-elect.

The electors, when they meet in the various state capitals on Dec. 15, are free to choose whomever they want, but in all likelihood would go along with the choice made by the national party committee.

If the president-elect died after Congress met on Jan. 6, 2009 to count the votes of the electors, then the vice president-elect would become president on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

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