What would happen if........

interlocked

one of the presidential candidates died suddenly before the election?

Would the VP candidate run instead or would it be the runner up for the presidential nomination?

Is there any legal basis for an election being postponed if such a thing happened, say a week before the election.

Or following that if a person won the election and died before being sworn in, would the VP candidate beome president

Basicially is there any protocol for any of the above or are you looking at a massive constitutional crisis?

Ludo

Is there something you want to tell us Sarah? :-)

Don't know really what would happen. Would be interested in the answer though if anyone has a nice link with information.

Hobbes

interlocked wrote: »

one of the presidential candidates died suddenly before the election?

There is more then one candidate. I suspect you mean what if one of the top two died suddenly before the election?

The top two are the Democrats / Republicans nominations. So they would pick another runner. In the case of the VPs they are the nominations picks, not the parties so they wouldn't be in a position to run afaik. But I could be wrong.

interlocked

Ok, hypothetical situation

Obama is killed in a plane crash a week before the presidential election.

1: Does the election go ahead with say McCain v Nader

2: Can the Democrats nominate a candidate without going through the rigmarole of selecting one through caucases and primaries again. I assume they would just nominate the runner up in their candidate election, ie me.. er Hillary sorry Ludo;)

3 Does the election HAVE to take place on the prescribed date ? I assume Bush MUST step down on expiry of his term of office or is there ground for temporary extension or could the Speaker or some other office holder assume temporary office until the election was run off?

4 Using the same hypothesis,, Obama wins the presidential election but a week before his inauguration he dies, would Biden become president by virtue of being the nominated VP or McCain by being runner up in the election

axer

interlocked wrote: »

1: Does the election go ahead with say McCain v Nader

The democrats pick a new candidate its in their rules (article III in the democrats rules and rule 9 in the republicans) and the election continues as normal.

interlocked wrote: »

2: Can the Democrats nominate a candidate without going through the rigmarole of selecting one through caucases and primaries again. I assume they would just nominate the runner up in their candidate election, ie me.. er Hillary sorry Ludo;)

The national committe will select the candidate which could be palin or biden or anyone else.

interlocked wrote: »

3 Does the election HAVE to take place on the prescribed date ? I assume Bush MUST step down on expiry of his term of office or is there ground for temporary extension or could the Speaker or some other office holder assume temporary office until the election was run off?

Yes, the election is supposed to take place on that date by law - it occurs on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November but I believe that congress could override that if necessary since it is not in the constitution.

interlocked wrote: »

4 Using the same hypothesis,, Obama wins the presidential election but a week before his inauguration he dies, would Biden become president by virtue of being the nominated VP or McCain by being runner up in the election

Yes, Biden would become president.

Voters in the USA are not directly voting for the president they are voting for the electors who have pledged to vote for the candidates (but technically they could vote for someone else). They meet the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December (15th this year I think) - the votes are counted 6th January by congress. If the candidate dies before they meet then they vote as normal and will pick which candidate the winning party decides. If the president elect dies after that then the 20th amendment takes over and the VP becomes president.

interlocked

Thanks for that Axer, very informative.