re: #208 Dr Lizardo

One question I’ve ruminated on from time to time is what happens if an incumbent President, up for re-election, dies less than 24 hours before election day? Or dies on election day itself?

Of course, the VP automatically assumes the office. But how would that affect the actual voting? Suppose on 11/3, it’s announced at 6:15 am EST that Trump has gone to his reward (I’ll leave that up to the reader to decide what that entails)….holy shit, what would that do to the dynamics of election day?

20th Amendment, Section 3:

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Based on that, even if the electors voted for Trump and Pence (assuming they won), Pence would become president. In the scenario where he’s technically elected vice president, he’d be sworn in as president and then would have to appoint a new VP to be confirmed by the House and Senate.