The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

Alex · 01-29-2008, 03:27 PM

Ah, misread.

I imagine it would vary widely by state depending on existing laws for ballot formation.

If it happens early enough I imagine the party would reconvene a convention and decide on a new nominee the old fashioned way and then would work with individual states to try and get that new candidate on the ballot instead. As it moves later into the cycle I imagine this would be more and more difficult to accomplish as when Mel Carnahan died so close to the 2000 election in Missouri and went on to defeat John Ashcroft for governor. There simply was no time.

The constitution leaves it to the states to determine how they assign their electors. So I imagine 50 states would very quickly have to pass legislation dealing with it. And then there would be years of lawsuits by whomever didn't care for the results. Remember, we don't vote for president but for electors, and those electors in almost all states are allowed to vote for whomever they want and are not required to vote for the candidate to which they are pledged. So the simplest thing would be that if the dead candidate won electors those electors would vote for a different person when the electoral college convenes (probably whomever the national party has decreed as the replacement).

01-29-2008, 03:27 PM	#11
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	Ah, misread. I imagine it would vary widely by state depending on existing laws for ballot formation. If it happens early enough I imagine the party would reconvene a convention and decide on a new nominee the old fashioned way and then would work with individual states to try and get that new candidate on the ballot instead. As it moves later into the cycle I imagine this would be more and more difficult to accomplish as when Mel Carnahan died so close to the 2000 election in Missouri and went on to defeat John Ashcroft for governor. There simply was no time. The constitution leaves it to the states to determine how they assign their electors. So I imagine 50 states would very quickly have to pass legislation dealing with it. And then there would be years of lawsuits by whomever didn't care for the results. Remember, we don't vote for president but for electors, and those electors in almost all states are allowed to vote for whomever they want and are not required to vote for the candidate to which they are pledged. So the simplest thing would be that if the dead candidate won electors those electors would vote for a different person when the electoral college convenes (probably whomever the national party has decreed as the replacement).
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