While speaking recently at the Cary Rotary Club Democrat North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue, suggested suspending congressional elections for two years to allow Congress can focus on economic recovery rather than the next election.
This notion besides being a violation of the governor’s oath of office to up hold the Constitution would not legally work the way she implied.
First of all elections are run by the individual states and not the Federal Government and there is no way to enforce a federal suspension of elections. The only way they could try would be to send armed troops and shoot any one who tries to vote or operate the poles.
Let’s say they some how succeeded in stopping the elections then the Constitution still makes what her proposal illegal. According to the 20th Amendment U.S. Constitution the terms of all current house members and 1/3 of the senate end January 3 2013 period. If this dies not change if the election does not occur their offices would simply be vacant. Furthermore Obama’s term as President ends at noon on January 20th 2013 with or with out an election. Therefore without an election Obama would no longer be president as of noon on January 20th 2013. The only legal way a new president could be selected would be for the remaining 2/3 of the senate to elect a new vice president who in the absence of a newly elected president the new vice president would be come President on noon on January 20th 2013. That 2/3 of the senate would be mostly Republicans and so the new President would be a Republican.
The result is that there is no legal way for a federal suspension of congressional elections would produce the results described by Governor Perdue. It would take a conspiracy of unprecedented proportions to pull off such a stunt, with governments of 50 states going along with it. The result of which would be that there would no longer be a legally constituted federal government and any action take by it would be null and void.
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