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What happens if a candidate for President dies
Good little discussion –
[link=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/rules-exist-what-could-come-next-they-wont-prevent-total-chaos/616586/]https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/rules-exist-what-could-come-next-they-wont-prevent-total-chaos/616586/[/link]
[h1]What Happens If a Presidential Candidate Becomes Incapacitated or Dies[/h1] [b]Rules exist for what could come next, but they wont prevent total chaos.[/b]The obvious replacement for a presidential candidate who dies or drops out is the persons running matewho, after all, is running for the post of presidential understudy. But neither party would be formally bound to move the vice-presidential nominee up to the top of the ticket. With the stakes as high as they are, no one should be surprised if other candidates were to make a play for the top spot. And if the running mate were to be chosen, the party would need to pick a new vice-presidential nomineea process that would necessarily be wide open. Drama would surely ensue.
It is too late to reprint ballots at this point. Not only have millions of people voted already, but the process of printing and distributing ballots is simply too time-consuming to try to squeeze it in before November 3. The law recognizes that at a certain point, the ballots say what they say, even if what they say is no longer accurate. As a political matter, it would be crucial for the party replacing its candidate to broadcast its choice to the public with speed and clarity, so that people would know as clearly as possible whom they were voting for (or against), even if thats not literally who is on the ballot. If people have already voted but want to change their mind, in some states they would be allowed to spoil their ballot and cast a fresh one, but this would add stress to a system that is already beleaguered this year. Some voters would be stuck, casting a vote for one candidate that ends up getting counted for another. This would put pressure on the party to choose the vice-presidential nominee to move to the top of the ticketif early voters cannot change their vote for president, at least their vote would go to the person they had simultaneously voted for to be the presidential candidates understudy.
Perhaps more important, the party would need to coordinate its Electoral College designeesthe people who cast the actual electoral votes when the partys candidate wins a state. If a presidential candidate dies or drops out before the day the Electoral College casts its votes (this year, December 14) the party would coordinate its electors to vote for a chosen replacement. Again, the process by which they would do so is up to them.
As the inauguration grows closer, things do get clearer. If a winning candidate dies after the Electoral College votes, the Twentieth Amendment would kick in. Section 3 of the amendment provides that if the president-elect dies, the vice presidentelect swears in as president in his stead on January 20. If both the president-elect and vice presidentelect die, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 dictates that the Speaker of the House would resign from the House, swear in as acting president, and serve out the term.
[link=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/white-house-coronavirus-measures/615841/].[/link]..
As messy as all of this could be, even messier are the possibilities if a candidate becomes very sick before the election, but does not die. What if heunwilling to give up on the possibility of recoveringdoes not withdraw? The party would be stuck. Some might attempt to interpret the party rules to allow the ouster of such a candidate (the RNC rules, in particular, use language that offers some wiggle room), but no party would want to stage that fight in the middle of an election. If the party leaders could not persuade the candidate to drop out, he would be left in place to hobble across the finish line as best he could.
There is a final, additional dimension to these possibilities, given that one of the candidatesthe one with the virusis currently the president. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides for an incapacitated president to transfer power to the vice president temporarily, until he recovers. Section 3 allows the president to choose to do this; Section 4 provides for the vice president and the Cabinet to do it without his consent. What if the president invoked Section 3 but, expecting to recover, wanted to remain as a candidate? Or what if the vice president and the Cabinet invoked Section 4 and the president contested it, sending the case to Congress for a resolution, as Section 4 provides? The party rules are separate from this process, and thus there is nothing legally binding that would prevent a president who has lost his powers from remaining on the ballot. Even if Section 4 were invoked and the president lost the congressional vote, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is based on the notion that the president might recoverhe is allowed to keep trying to retake his powers. As such, it would be hard to use this as a basis to replace him as a candidate, though someone could try.
In the end, we have pretty good processes in place for handling a presidential candidates serious illness or death at various stages of the process. That does not mean, though, that these processes wouldnt be accompanied by serious political upheaval. We know who the decision makers would be, in other words, but we have no idea what they would decideand what voters reactions would be. If President Trumps condition worsens, hang on to your hats.
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6 Replies
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We may find out.
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That’s why electing octogenarians is a bad idea. JoJo 2020
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Quote from avocado
That’s why electing octogenarians is a bad idea. JoJo 2020
330 million and those two were the best picks ?
There should be a bracket you have to be in to get elected, 45-60. Old enough that you dont believe in unicorns that fart rainbows but young enough that you wont develop senility while in office.-
He definitely needs to chill out and settle down for like the next three days or so. Sick people always seem to have a problem relaxing and try to do too much that just gets them into further trouble.
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Might be a good idea to give him an anti-coagulant for a little bit.
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PRESIDENT TRUMP: CHILLAX
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