04/10/2020 - 16:01
Clarín.com
World
Never has an American presidential candidate died
or been forced to withdraw from the race so close to an election.
But Donald Trump's hospitalization for coronavirus a month before the election has raised the question of what would happen if something like this were to happen.
Trump, hospitalized with covid-19,
is 74 years old
.
Meanwhile, his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, who is reported to be in good health, is 77 years old and the oldest Democratic candidate to contest the presidential race.
Here is a look at potential scenarios in the event that a nominee drops out: Unlikely.
Congress sets the date of the election
and it has already been set, as required by US law, for the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
Both the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives would have to agree to postpone it.
AFP
"I don't see it happening," said Capri Cafaro, a former Ohio Senate Democratic legislator who teaches at American University.
"It is unlikely that a Democratic majority would want to postpone the election."
Even during the Civil War between the North and the South, the 1864 election took place as planned and
Abraham Lincoln was re-elected.
Both Trump's Republican Party and Biden's Democratic Party have rules about
how to fill an eventual void in the presidential nomination.
In the case of Republicans, the 168 members of the Republican National Committee could vote to select a replacement.
They could also agree to rerun their 2,500-plus delegate convention to select a new candidate, but time probably wouldn't make it feasible.
A
simple majority would be the only thing necessary
to elect a new candidate in those scenarios.
In the case of the Democrats, a new presidential candidate would be selected by the nearly 450 members of the Democratic National Committee.
Probably not.
"The problem at this point is that we are so far advanced in the 2020 election that the ballots are already printed and even people have already voted," Cafaro said.
"There really is
n't enough time to reprint ballots
that say Mike Pence or Kamala Harris," he added, referring to the Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates.
More than 3.1 million Americans
have already voted, according to a count by the University of Florida.
Also, the deadlines for obtaining ballots vary from state to state and in many cases have already passed.
Although a popular vote is held in the United States, the president is elected by an absolute majority of the 538 members of the Electoral College.
In all but two states (Nebraska and Maine), the candidate who wins the majority of the popular vote there wins
all of the state's electors.
Nothing in the Constitution obliges those electors to vote one way or another, but the Supreme Court ruled in July that states could fine voters who represent them in the Electoral College and who do not respect the popular vote.
Members of the Electoral College
will meet in their respective states on December 14
and vote for the president and vice president.
In the event that a candidate dies or retires before the Electoral College takes its vote, things could get complicated.
The laws of each state would be activated,
but in theory each party could direct its constituents to vote for a replacement candidate.
On January 6, 2021, Congress must certify the results and the winner must be inaugurated as president on January 20.
Source: AFP
PB
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