@cricketballs3
I've lurked these threads for the last 4 years, occasionally asking the odd question to which has prompted this Q
I know that the timeline between election and inauguration relates to when the constitution was written i.e. transport etc however isn't the chaos that's been witnessed since November an indication that this window needs to be seriously shortened
I agree. The historical precedent seems very outdated now. (And apparently it used to be March not January!)
But even so, because of the size of 21st C government I would think that logistics are partly to blame. The machinery of American government is huge, a multi-trillion dollar operation with millions of employees. Shifting power from one administration to the next must be a logistical nightmare.
Even if transitions cannot be instantaneous, surely they can be shorter? And Congress should consider the possibility of banning "midnight rulemaking" by outgoing administrations after Election Day.
The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1933, moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20, thereby also shortening the transition period. After the election, an outgoing president is commonly referred to as a lame duck president. A transition can also arise intra-term if a president dies, resigns or is removed from office, though the period may be very short.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_transition