Presidential Election Question

I have a question for anyone who may have an answer. Imagine Kerry & Edwards win the election......but are both assassinated before taking office. What would happen with the Presidency then?

[edit on 7/29/04 by dalepmay]

There is a chain of command for President, darn me for not paying more attention in Government class in high school.

Pres -> VP -> Speaker of House -> Senate Pres Pro Tem. -> Sec. of State -> other Sec.

www.doctorzebra.com...

[edit on 7/29/2004 by zsandmann]

Would the chain of succession come into effect before or after they are sworn in? Or, in other words, when does someone's presidency officially start?

In a nutshell, here it is:

If the President elect is not fit for service prior to being elected by the Electoral College (in December), the Electoral College still votes for President. It is assumed this would be for the Vice-President elect, although it doesn't have to be.

If the President elect is unfit after the Electoral College has voted him/her in, then the Vice-President elect will become President.

If both the President elect and Vice-President elect are unfit for office after the Electoral College has qualified them, then the established chain of command will take effect, Speaker of the House etc. Remember, the President does not take office until January 20th. At that time, the previous cabinet members are still technically cabinet members, but they usually resign as common courtesy so the new President can establish his own cabinet. Under this scenario, they would still be in line to become President.

There are a couple of scenarios where the House of Representatives would chose an acting President and the Senate would chose an acting Vice-Presidnet, but it is not entirely clear.

That being said, if something like that happened, I'm sure there would be quite a few different interpretations of the Constitution and several legal battles to figure it out.