What if all the 1796 electors decided to vote for Washington?

[darklordoftech]

In other words, what if the Electors voted for someone who didn’t want to be President?

[brucejoel99]

If all of the 1796 electors had decided to vote for Washington, then he'd have been re-elected President.

However, he could've just went on to refuse to take the oath of office on inauguration day, in which case he technically wouldn't have qualified as President, meaning we would've seen a Tyler-like succession crisis happen 44 years ahead of schedule.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I moved this here from the Constitution and Law board.

Washington did get 2 votes in 1796, but for him to get enough to be reelected despite his stated preference to retire would require such different conditions than our own 1796, it's hard to say what would have happened.  On the other hand, if had been reelected, he probably wouldn't have been killed by his doctor doing too much bloodletting, so he would have survived the term, had he chosen to serve.

[morgankingsley]

You dont need all, just half of them