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Interesting Election reference question . . .

October 8, 2008 at 9:38 am Karen Klapperstuck 1 comment

Last night during the presidential debate I got a very interesting reference question: What happens if either of the presidential candidates dies between now and Election Day?

I looked into it and it is not exactly clear! But there is a lot of information and speculation out there regarding this issue and what would happen.

Basically, both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee have rules stating they are responsible for filling vacancies if something happens to their nominee. The Republican rules are a bit more explicit in how it would happen. But neither is absolutely clear. (See Republican rules and Democratic rules for yourselves.)

I found other clarification on wiki answers. Essentially, if a candidate dies before Election Day, the party’s committee (somehow) votes on a new candidate. Of course, the closer to Election Day it happened, the more difficult that would be because of ballot printing, etc. Congress could choose to push back Election Day to allow time for the parties to regroup and to get the word out about the new candidate selection. It does seem clear, however, that the VP candidate is not necessarily the shoe-in in such a scenario.

Another post I found, from October 2000, addresses these issues as well as some other “disaster scenarios” that could happen. To check it out, click here.

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