Viewpoint
By Chris Geidner
Tribune Chronicle (Warren, Ohio)
Nov. 3, 2000

Imagine the following . . .

On Jan. 20, Sen. Joseph Lieberman is sworn in as vice president. He acts as president until Jan. 4, 2003, when Gov. George W. Bush is sworn in as president and Lieberman serves as his vice president.

Impossible?

Think again.

Due to a Constitutional loophole created by the peculiarities of the Electoral College and an irregularity in the 20th Amendment, this could be the future.

To be elected president, a candidate must receive 270, or a majority, of the 538 available electoral votes. However, in Tuesday's election, a Bush-Gore 269-269 tie is a topic of media speculation.

In such a situation, the House of Representatives would be responsible, under the 12th Amendment, for choosing the president. Since the Congress does not actually count the votes of the electors until Jan. 6, the new Congress elected Tuesday would be responsible for choosing the president. Each state delegation casts one vote for president, with the very real possibility of a 25-25 tie.

Should no vice presidential candidate receive a majority of the electoral votes, a simple majority vote would be taken by the Senate to choose the vice president while the House is choosing the president. Yes, the Senate also could end up with a tie. A 50-50 Republican-Democratic Senate in the beginning of 2001 actually is looking eerily possible.

In this case, Vice President Gore, acting until Jan. 20 in his role as President of the Senate, could cast the tie-breaking vote for Joseph Lieberman for vice president. Lieberman would then be sworn in as vice president on Jan. 20.

If the House has not chosen a president by that time, the 20^th Amendment states that the vice president (Lieberman in this case) "shall act as President until a President shall have qualified." This is distinctly different from what the 20th Amendment says will happen if the president-elect dies before taking office. In that case the Amendment says, "the Vice President elect shall become President."

Both of these statements are found in the same paragraph of the 20th Amendment. If the framers intended the same result, the same language would have been used.

Vice President Lieberman would therefore act as president for as long as the House remains deadlocked. He would not, however, become the president.

Since the vice president is only acting as president the vice presidency is not vacant. Therefore, contrary to what the pundits are telling the nation, no new vice president would be selected.

The 12th Amendment is causing much of the confusion for those who insist that a Senate-appointed vice president would become president.

According to the 12th Amendment, the House would have until March 4 to break its tie. If they did not, Lieberman would be sworn in as president. The 20th Amendment, however, eliminated that deadline and replaced it with the vague deadline of "until a President shall have qualified."

When, then, is the deadline for the House to break its tie and pick the president?

There is none.

Neither the 20th Amendment nor any section of the Constitution sets any deadline for the House to choose the president.

At any time during that presidential term of office -- even after the mid-term elections in 2002 -- the House could break its 25-25 deadlock and choose the president. Because there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent the House from choosing a president of a different party than the vice president, the House could choose Bush as president. He would be sworn in and Lieberman would perform the duties of vice president.

President Bush and Vice President Lieberman would then serve until the 2004 election, when this whole process could start all over again.

Please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] with any comment about my viewpoint.