Jolene Guzman, Staff Writer

Question: I want to know, under any circumstances or conditions does the President of the United States ever have the sole power to institute the draft? If hypothetically a president and vice president were officially elected into office, but before the president was officially sworn into office, he died. Would the vice president-elect be sworn in as president or who would be?

Answer: As to the first question, in a word no.

The president would have to go through Congress first for approval to institute the draft.

According to Southwestern Oregon Community College history and political science instructor Fred Brick, there are two steps to instituting the draft: Congressional approval of legislation reinstituting the draft and a president’s signature on that bill.

“Anybody can call for a draft, but they must pass legislation and have it signed,” Brick said.

As for the second question, yes, the vice president-elect would take office if the president-elect died before taking the oath.

The circumstances weren’t exactly the same, but Brick said this very situation happened with Gerald Ford, who became the nation’s first nonelected president. After Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 because of tax evasion charges, Nixon appointed Ford to the vice presidency. The next year, Nixon resigned making Ford president.

Brick used an example more timely and maybe not so out of the range of possibility depending on November’s election to describe how this scenario would work:

“If McCain has a coronary on the way to the White House, Sarah Palin would be president,” he said.

Palin then would be the first woman president and the second to appoint a vice president to office.