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Say It in Writing. But who is to say when the President is incapacitated? The Constitution is silent. President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon worked out an arrangement between themselves. So did President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson. So have Johnson and Vice President Humphrey. But these agreements have no constitutional standing, and it was to provide such a basis that Johnson sent to Congress his proposals for an amendment. The present situation, he said, "constitutes an indefensible folly for our responsible society. Common sense impels, duty requires us to act—and to act now, without further delay."
Under Johnson's plan, the President, if disabled to the point where he could no longer do his job, would so state in writing. The Vice President would become Acting President until such time as the President, again in writing, declared that he was able to resume office.
But if the President, for physical or mental reasons, was unable to declare his own disability, the Vice President, with the written concurrence of a ma jority of the Cabinet, could assume the powers and duties—but not the office —of the President. If the President disputed this action, the decision would be up to Congress. To serve as Acting President in that case, the Vice President would need an affirmative vote from two-thirds of the members of both the Senate and House. Otherwise, the President would remain in power.
Dissolving the College. President Johnson also noted that the Constitution fails to provide for a successor to a Vice President taking over after a President's death. He urged a constitutional amendment enabling the new President to select his own Vice President, the appointment to be ratified by a majority vote of the Senate and House.
The President also proposed a constitutional amendment that would dissolve the Electoral College and its arbitrary powers, while preserving the system of electoral votes. In 1960, for example, John Kennedy won in both Alabama and Mississippi, but 14 electors from those states ignored the will of the voters and cast their electoral votes for Virginia's Senator Harry Byrd. Under Johnson's proposal, each state's electoral votes would count only for the candidate who carries the state. Under the present system, moreover, the Electoral College can choose anybody—not necessarily the Vice President-elect—to be President if the President-elect dies before inauguration. By wiping out the Electoral College, the Johnson proposal would stipulate that the Vice President-elect must be inaugurated as President in such cases.