What happens if a presidential candidate dies?
Yes, that's a pessimistic question, although President Joe Biden is 81 years old and former President Donald Trump is 78.
The combination of two elderly leaders vying for another four-year term in the White House, Saturday's assassination attempt on President Trump and Wednesday's news of Biden's third COVID-19 case raises a logical question: who would decide the nominee if a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated during the campaign?
The answer “depends on what stage of the process it happens,” an election expert told USA Today, but the major parties have put in place rules to make the process as smooth as possible.
“Anyone who plans an election knows this is a possibility,” said Rebecca Green, an associate professor of election law at the College of William and Mary. “Most states have established procedures that are relatively routinely used.”
If a presidential candidate dies before the convention
That section doesn't apply to Trump, because Republicans formally nominated him at the Republican National Convention on Monday, but it does apply to Biden, because delegates to the Democratic National Convention have yet to vote.
If the sitting Democratic president dies or is incapacitated before the vote, his delegates will effectively be removed from office and the party will have to settle on a nominee at its Chicago convention, which runs from August 19 to 22. Presidential candidates will have to persuade party members representing each state to support their candidacy.
“This is essentially a partisan issue,” reminiscent of how candidates were chosen before primaries became popular in decades past, said John Fortier, lead contributor to the Election Reform Project at the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution.
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If a presidential candidate dies between the convention and Election Day
If a Democratic presidential candidate dies between the convention and Election Day, the Democratic National Committee will consult with the party's House and Senate leaders and the Democratic Governors Association to select a candidate.
Democrats have only done this once before, in 1972, when presidential candidate George McGovern decided to drop Missouri man Thomas Eagleton from his running mate for the Democratic nomination after news broke that Eagleton had been hospitalized for depression and given electric shock treatments.
Robert Sargent Shriver was selected as the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee at a special meeting of the Democratic National Committee just over two weeks after the party's convention in Washington, DC.
For the Republican Party, members of the Republican National Committee choose their candidate through a delegate vote, which may be convened to vote in person.
Where it starts to get tricky is if a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated after states begin printing the ballots. By early September, ballots are printed and sent out to comply with federal law so Americans overseas, including military personnel, have a chance to vote.
“Different states have different rules about when and how a candidate can be replaced,” Green said.
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Even if it's too late to remove their names from the ballot, Democrats and Republicans will likely nominate new candidates as their party's standard-bearers.
Fortier said it's important to remember that when people vote, they're not voting for a candidate, but for electors who will vote for their preferred party in the Electoral College.
That allows electors in most states to simply vote for an alternate candidate, regardless of which name actually appears on the ballot, he said.
But state laws limit who electors can vote for, and things get complicated again if a candidate dies or is incapacitated when the electors are due to cast their votes.
“There's potential for confusion,” said Ned Foley, director of the election law program at Ohio State University, because about a dozen states don't specify what electors should do if a candidate dies or have laws that require electors to vote for the name on the ballot rather than the party's nominee, he said.
States could move to change their laws, and the question of who electors should vote for could be decided in state courts, he said.
If a presidential candidate dies before Congress convenes on January 6th
The most complicated situation would arise if a candidate died or became incapacitated between the electoral college voting in early December and when Congress convenes to certify the results on January 6.
“It's not 100% clear that Congress will count the votes of people who have died,” Fortier said, adding that if neither candidate gets the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency, the election outcome will be decided in a so-called “conditional vote” by the House of Representatives.
If a presidential candidate dies or becomes incapacitated after Congress certifies the election results, 20Number The amendment goes into effect, establishing the line of succession: the Vice President will be sworn in as President on Inauguration Day.
