The president-elect of the United States is the candidate who has presumptively won the United States presidential election and is awaiting inauguration to become the president. There is no explicit indication in the U.S. Constitution as to when that person actually becomes president-elect, although the Twentieth Amendment uses the term "president-elect", thus giving the term "president-elect" constitutional justification.[1][2] It is assumed the Congressional certification of votes cast by the Electoral College of the United States – occurring after the third day of January following the swearing-in of the new Congress, per provisions of the Twelfth Amendment – unambiguously confirms the successful candidate as the official "president-elect" under the U.S. Constitution. As an unofficial term, president-elect has been used by the media since at least the latter half of the 19th century, and was in use by politicians since at least the 1790s. Politicians and the media have applied the term to the projected winner, even on election night,[3] and very few who turned out to have lost have been referred to as such.[4]
While Election Day is held in early November, formal voting by the members of the Electoral College takes place in mid-December, and the presidential inauguration (at which the oath of office is taken) is then usually held on January 20. The only constitutional provision pertaining directly to the person who has won the presidential election is their availability to take the oath of office.[1] The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 empowers the General Services Administration to determine who the apparent election winner is, and provides for a timely and organized sequence for the federal government's transition planning in cooperation with the president-elect's transition team; it also includes the provision of office space for the "apparent successful candidates".[5] By convention, during the period between the election and the inauguration, the president-elect actively prepares to carry out the duties of the office of president and works with the outgoing (or lame duck) president to ensure a smooth handover of presidential responsibilities. Since 2008, incoming presidents have also used the name Office of the President-elect to refer to their transition organization, despite a lack of formal description for it.
Incumbent presidents who have won re-election for a second term are generally not referred to as presidents-elect, as they are already in office and are not waiting to become president. A sitting vice president who is elected president is referred to as president-elect.
The use of the term dates back to at least the 1790s, with letters written by multiple of the Founding Fathers of the United States having used the term in relation to the 1796 United States presidential election. There is evidence from some of these letters that, as is the case today, it may have been acceptable to apply the term to individuals that appeared to have won election, even before the full results were known.[6]
Major news publications began to regularly use the term in the latter half of the 19th century.[6]
Under the 1887 Electoral Count Act, the presidential electors, the members of the Electoral College, the body that directly elects the president, must be "appointed, in each state, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every fourth year". Thus, all states appoint their electors on the same date, in November, once every four years. However, the manner of appointment of the electors is determined by the law of each state, subject to the restrictions stipulated by the Constitution.
Currently, in every state, an election by the people is the method employed for the choice of the members of the Electoral College. The Constitution, however, does not specify any procedure that states must follow in choosing electors. A state could, for instance, prescribe that they be elected by the state legislature or even chosen by the state's governor. The latter was the norm in early presidential elections prior to the 1820s; no state has done so since the 1860s. Several states have enacted or proposed laws that would give their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote regardless of the result of their statewide vote, but these laws will not come into force unless states with a majority of the electoral votes collectively enact such laws, which as of 2018 has yet to occur.
On the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the electors of each state meet in their respective state capitals (and the electors of the District of Columbia meet in the federal capital), and in those meetings the electors cast their votes for president and vice president of the United States. At the conclusion of their meetings, the electors of each state and of the District of Columbia then execute a "certificate of vote" (in several original copies), declaring the vote count in each meeting. To each certificate of vote, a certificate of ascertainment is annexed. Each certificate of ascertainment is the official document (usually signed by the governor of the state and/or by the state's secretary of state) that declares the names of the electors, certifying their appointment as members of the Electoral College. Given that in all states the electors are currently chosen by popular vote, each certificate of ascertainment also declares the results of the popular vote that decided the appointment of the electors, although this information is not constitutionally required. The electors in each state and of the District of Columbia then send the certificates of vote, with the enclosed certificates of ascertainment, to the president of the U.S. Senate.
The electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress in early January (on January 6 as required by 3 U.S. Code, Chapter 1, or an alternative date set by statute), and if the ballots are accepted without objections, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates winning at least 270 electoral votes—a majority of the total number of electoral votes—are certified as having won the election by the incumbent vice president, in their capacity as president of the Senate. If no presidential candidate reaches the 270-vote threshold, the election for the president is decided by the House of Representatives in a run-off contingent election. Similarly, if no vice-presidential candidate reaches that threshold, the election for the vice president is decided by the Senate.[1]
Electoral College role
Although neither the Constitution nor any federal law requires electors to vote for the candidate who wins their state's popular vote, some states have enacted laws mandating that they vote for the state vote winner. In 2020, the constitutionality of these laws was upheld by the United States Supreme Court.[7] Historically, there have only been a few instances of "faithless electors" casting their ballots for a candidate to whom they were not pledged, and such instances have never altered the final outcome of a presidential election.
Congressional reports
Two congressional reports found that the president-elect is the eventual winner of the majority of electoral ballots cast in December. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress, in its 2004 report "Presidential and Vice Presidential Succession: Overview and Current Legislation,"[8] discussed the question of when candidates who have received a majority of electoral votes become president-elect. The report notes that the constitutional status of the president-elect is disputed:
Some commentators doubt whether an official president- and vice president-elect exist prior to the electoral votes being counted and announced by Congress on January 6, maintaining that this is a problematic contingency lacking clear constitutional or statutory direction. Others assert that once a majority of electoral votes has been cast for one ticket, then the recipients of these votes become the president- and vice president-elect, notwithstanding the fact that the electoral votes are not counted and certified until the following January 6.
The CRS report quotes the 1933 U.S. House committee report accompanying the Twentieth Amendment as endorsing the latter view:
It will be noted that the committee uses the term "president-elect" in its generally accepted sense, as meaning the person who has received the majority of electoral votes, or the person who has been chosen by the House of Representatives in the event that the election is thrown into the House. It is immaterial whether or not the votes have been counted, for the person becomes the president-elect as soon as the votes are cast.[9]
President-elect succession
Scholars have noted that the national committees of the Democratic and Republican parties have adopted rules for selecting replacement candidates in the event of a nominee's death, either before or after the general election. If the apparent winner of the general election dies before the Electoral College votes in December the electors would likely be expected to endorse whatever new nominee their national party selects as a replacement. The rules of both major parties stipulate that if the apparent winner dies under such circumstances and his or her running mate is still able to assume the presidency, then the running mate is to become the president-elect with the electors being directed to vote for the former vice presidential nominee for President. The party's national committee, in consultation with the new president-elect, would then select a replacement to receive the electoral votes for Vice President.
If the apparent winner dies between the College's December vote and its counting in Congress in January, the Twelfth Amendment stipulates that all electoral ballots cast shall be counted, presumably even those for a dead candidate. The U.S. House committee reporting on the proposed Twentieth Amendment said the "Congress would have 'no discretion' [and] 'would declare that the deceased candidate had received a majority of the votes.'"[10]
The Constitution did not originally include the term president-elect. The term was introduced through the Twentieth Amendment, ratified in 1933, which contained a provision addressing the unavailability of the president-elect to take the oath of office on Inauguration Day.[1] Section 3 provides that if there is no president-elect on January 20, or the president-elect "fails to qualify", the vice president-elect would become acting president on January 20 until there is a qualified president. The section also provides that if the president-elect dies before noon on January 20, the vice president-elect becomes president-elect. In cases where there is no president-elect or vice president-elect, the amendment also gives the Congress the authority to declare an acting president until such time as there is a president or vice president. At this point the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 would apply, with the office of the Presidency going to the speaker of the House of Representatives, followed by the president pro tempore of the Senate and various Cabinet officers.[11]
Horace Greeley is the only presidential candidate to win pledged electors in the general election and then die before the presidential inauguration; he secured 66 votes in 1872 and died before the Electoral College met. Greeley had already clearly lost the election and most of his votes inconsequentially scattered to other candidates.
The closest instance of there being no qualified person to take the presidential oath of office on Inauguration Day happened in 1877 when the disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden was decided and certified in Hayes' favor just three days before the inauguration (then March 4). It might have been a possibility on several other occasions as well. In January 1853, President-elect Franklin Pierce survived a train accident that killed his 11-year-old son. Four years later, President-elect James Buchanan battled a serious illness contracted at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., as he planned his inauguration. Additionally, on February 15, 1933, just 23 days after the Twentieth Amendment went into effect, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt in Miami, Florida. The amendment's provision moving inauguration day from March 4 to January 20, would not take effect until 1937, but its three provisions about a president-elect went into effect immediately.[1] If the assassination attempt on Roosevelt had been successful then, pursuant to Section 3 of the amendment, Vice President-elect John Nance Garner would have been sworn in as president on Inauguration Day, and the vice presidency would have remained vacant for the entire 4-year term.
Since the widespread adoption of the telegraph in the mid-19th century, the de facto president-elect has been known beyond a reasonable doubt, with only a few exceptions, within a few days (or even hours) of the polls closing on election day. As a result, incoming presidents gained valuable preparation time prior to assuming office.
Recent presidents-elect have assembled transition teams to prepare for a smooth transfer of power following the inauguration. Outgoing presidents have cooperated with the president-elect on important policy matters during the last two months of the president's term to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of operations that have significant national interests. Before the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, which moved the start of the presidential term to January, the president-elect did not assume office until March, four months after the popular election.
Under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (P.L. 88-277),[12] amended by the Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act of 1998 (P.L. 100-398),[13] the Presidential Transition Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-293),[14][15] and the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-283),[16] the president-elect is entitled to request and receive certain privileges from the General Services Administration (GSA) as they prepare to assume office.
Section 3 of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 was enacted to help smooth transitions between incoming and outgoing presidential administrations. To that end, provisions such as office space, telecommunication services, transition staff members are allotted, upon request, to the president-elect, though the Act grants the president-elect no official powers and makes no mention of an "Office of the President-Elect."[12]
In 2008, President-elect Barack Obama gave numerous speeches and press conferences in front of a placard emblazoned with "Office of the President Elect"[17] and used the same term on his website.[18] President-elect Donald Trump did likewise on January 11, 2017.[19]
The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 further authorizes the Administrator of the General Services Administration to issue a "letter of ascertainment" even before the December vote of the Electoral College; this letter identifies the apparent winners of the November general election; this enables the president-elect, vice president-elect, and transition teams for the purposes of receiving federal transition funding, office space and communications services prior to the beginning of the new administration on January 20.[5][20][21] There are no firm rules on how the GSA determines the president-elect. Typically, the GSA chief might make the decision after reliable news organizations have declared the winner or following a concession by the loser.[22]
Article II, Section 1, clause 8 of the Constitution provides that "Before he enter on the Execution of his Office" the president shall swear or affirm to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States" and "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The Twentieth Amendment provides that noon on January 20 marks both the end of a four-year presidential term and the beginning of the next four-year presidential term.[23] It is a "constitutional mystery" about who (if anyone) holds the presidency during the brief period on Inauguration Day between noon and the swearing-in of a new president (or the renewed swearing-in of a re-elected president) approximately five minutes later.[23] One view is that "a President-elect does not assume the status and powers of the President until he or she takes the oath"; under this view, "a person must reach before he or she can assume and exercise the powers of President."[24] A second, opposite view is that the taking of the oath is a "ceremonial reminder of both the President's duty to execute the law and the status of the Constitution as supreme law" and is not a prerequisite to a person "exercis[ing] the powers of the Chief Executive"; the view can be partially based on the fact that the oath is not mentioned in the eligibility requirements for the presidency set forth elsewhere in Article II.[24] A third, intermediate view (the "primed presidency" view) is that "a President-elect automatically becomes President upon the start of his new term, but is unable to 'enter on the Execution of his Office' until he recites the oath"; in other words, the president "must complete the oath before she can constitutionally tap the power of the presidency."[24]
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, which carries out and enforces federal laws. Article Two vests the power of the executive branch in the office of the president of the United States, lays out the procedures for electing and removing the president, and establishes the president's powers and responsibilities.
The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the procedure for electing the president and vice president. It replaced the procedure in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, under which the Electoral College originally functioned. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 9, 1803, and was ratified by the requisite three-fourths of state legislatures on June 15, 1804. The new rules took effect for the 1804 presidential election and have governed all subsequent presidential elections.
The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March4 to January 20, and of members of Congress from March4 to January 3. It also has provisions that determine what is to be done when there is no president-elect. The Twentieth Amendment was adopted on January 23, 1933.
The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice president is also an officer in the legislative branch, as the president of the Senate. In this capacity, the vice president is empowered to preside over the United States Senate, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote. The vice president is indirectly elected together with the president to a four-year term of office by the people of the United States through the Electoral College. Since the passage of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, the vice president may also be appointed by the president to fill a vacancy, via majority confirmation by both the Senate and the House.
The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution extends the right to participate in presidential elections to the District of Columbia. The amendment grants to the district electors in the Electoral College, as though it were a state, though the district can never have more electors than the least-populous state. How the electors are appointed is to be determined by Congress. The Twenty-third Amendment was proposed by the 86th Congress on June 16, 1960; it was ratified by the requisite number of states on March 29, 1961.
In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every 4 years for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president. Each state appoints electors under the methods described by its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation. The federal District of Columbia also has 3 electors under an amendment adopted in 1961. Federal office holders, including senators and representatives, cannot be electors. Of the current 538 electors, a simple majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves a majority there, a contingent election is held by the House of Representatives to elect the president and by the Senate to elect the vice president.
The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye, is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national government and is the commander-in-chief of the Turkish military. The president also heads the National Security Council.
The vice president of India is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the order of precedence and first in the line of succession to the presidency. The vice president is also the ex officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or both offices or abstains from voting. As part of United States presidential elections, each state selects the method by which its electors are to be selected, which in modern times has been based on a popular vote in most states, and generally requires its electors to have pledged to vote for the candidates of their party if appointed. A pledged elector is only considered a faithless elector by breaking their pledge; unpledged electors have no pledge to break. The consequences of an elector voting in a way inconsistent with their pledge vary from state to state.
Elections in California are held to fill various local, state and federal seats. In California, regular elections are held every even year ; however, some seats have terms of office that are longer than two years, so not every seat is on the ballot in every election. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time. Recall elections can also be held. Additionally, statewide initiatives, legislative referrals and referendums may be on the ballot.
In the United States, a presidential transition is the process during which the president-elect of the United States prepares to take over the administration of the federal government of the United States from the incumbent president. Though planning for transition by a non-incumbent candidate can start at any time before a presidential election and in the days following, the transition formally starts when the General Services Administration (GSA) declares an “apparent winner” of the election, thereby releasing the funds appropriated by Congress for the transition, and continues until inauguration day, when the president-elect takes the oath of office, at which point the powers, immunities, and responsibilities of the presidency are legally transferred to the new president.
The vice president-elect of the United States is the candidate who has won election to the office of vice president of the United States in a United States presidential election, but is awaiting inauguration to assume the office.
Presidential elections were held in Brazil on 15 January 1985, the last to be held indirectly through an electoral college, and the last to be held under the military regime. The electoral college system was put in place so that the military elite that controlled the government could secure the election of the candidate chosen by the High Command of the Armed Forces as President. However, in 1985, due to the process of negotiated transition to democracy that started in the late 1970s, the politicians in the electoral college were placed under no coercion, and were allowed to choose the president of their choice.
The election of the president and the vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not directly for those offices, but instead for members of the Electoral College. These electors then cast direct votes, known as electoral votes, for president, and for vice president. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes is then elected to that office. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of the votes for president, the House of Representatives elects the president; likewise if no one receives an absolute majority of the votes for vice president, then the Senate elects the vice president.
In the United States, a contingent election is used to elect the president or vice president if no candidate receives a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed. A presidential contingent election is decided by a special vote of the United States House of Representatives, while a vice-presidential contingent election is decided by a vote of the United States Senate. During a contingent election in the House, each state delegation votes en bloc to choose the president instead of representatives voting individually. Senators, by contrast, cast votes individually for vice president.
The Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) is a United States federal law that added to procedures set out in the Constitution of the United States for the counting of electoral votes following a presidential election. In its unamended form, it last governed at the time of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count. The Act has since been substantially amended by the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.
The count of the Electoral College ballots during a joint session of the 115th United States Congress, pursuant to the Electoral Count Act, on January 6, 2017, was the final step to confirm then-President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election over Hillary Clinton.
There is ongoing legal debate about the constitutionality of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact in the United States. At issue are interpretations of the Compact Clause of Article I, Section X, and states' plenary power under the Presidential Electors Clause of Article II, Section I.
↑ U.S. Congress, House, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, report to accompany S.J. Res. 14, 72nd Cong., 1st sess., Rept. 345 (Washington, GPO:1932), p. 6.
↑ In November 2000, the GSA administrator did not name a president-elect until the legal disputes over vote-counting in Florida were resolved. Schrader, Esther (November 28, 2000). "GSA Denies Bush Transition Aid, Citing Legal Battle". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2009. Retrieved November 16, 2008. It started early Monday when the Bush team asked for access to the taxpayer-funded transition offices that are to be used by the president-elect. The General Services Administration refused, explaining it was best to wait until the legal challenges in Florida had run their course.
↑ Allan Smith and Heidi Przybyla (November 10, 2020). "Trump appointee slow-walks Biden transition. That could delay the president-elect's Covid-19 plan". NBC News. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020. the letter of "ascertainment" — a previously mostly noncontroversial process since the passage of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. Signing the paperwork when a new president is elected triggers the release of millions of dollars in transition funding and allows an incoming administration access to current government officials.
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