What happens if one of our presidential candidates dies 3 weeks before the election?

Question

The Bhutto assassination made me wonder what our process is.

Answer 1

The election would go on. The President/Vice President are elected on the same ticket, so, if the dead candidate won, the VP would actually become the President.

Having a dead candidate win an election has happened several times. The most recent that I remember was John Ashcroft losing the Missouri Governor's election to a dead candidate. After Ashcroft lost his election, Bush made him Attorney General of US.

I also read of an election in Kentucky where a candidate murdered his opponent. One candidate was dead and the other was out on bail pending a murder trial. A write-in candidate wound up winning the election (in a rare show of bipartisanship, the murder suspect's own party campaigned against him and for the write-in candidate of the opposing party).

Answer 2

Before the popular vote? Or before the college votes? If a candidate dies in the period after the election but before the college vote, the college votes for the deceased candidate would be cast for another living candidate. This has only happened once. The deceased candidate had lost anyway, so the result was unchanged (1872, Horace Greeley, Dem) I think most states require the slate of electors to hold good to their pledge and do not allow for a change of candidate.

Answer 3

The elections still go on the vice presidential candidate becomes the front runner or in a strange twist the party that is affected can get the second party who was not nominated to be the presidential candidate either way the election will still held on that day not unless and act of God,stops the whole process n that is saying a lot now wouldn't it be.

Answer 4

Since the vote hasn't occurred yet, there really isn't a set process of events. I would think the "running mate" of the deceased would attempt to step up to their spot, but they would have to try and find their own "running mate". With only 3 weeks left, this would be nearly impossible to do while simultaneously envoking trust from the voters. That party would most likely lose the vote.

Take care.

Answer 5

Obviously the vice presidential candidate on the ticket goes forward, probably picks a new VP candidate and the race goes on. There have been races in the US where dead people have won election (congress) and in fact I think the former attorney general (can't remember his name) was defeated by a dead guy that died in a plan crash.

Answer 6

Typically, when a political parties' candidate dies before an election, the party leadership chooses a replacement.

Answer 7

We actually vote for electors to the electoral college in a presidential election. Since ballots would have been printed the deceased candidate would appear with his/her running mate, and the electors would determine whom to vote for if their party carried a particular state. Horace Greeley died before the electoral college met even though he had lost to U.S. Grant. His electors voted for various candidates. It would be a death blow (no pun intended) to a party if their top candidate dies before the general election.

Answer 8

The process continues. The VP candidate would become the Presidential candidate, and would select a new running mate.

Answer 9

The VP would probably be bumped up to run for President. And they'd find a new VP.

But America isn't Pakistan. We have much less terrorism in our own country. It is a rare thing for a politican here to fear for their life. Keep in mind she had survived other threats before and knew it was unsafe for her to come there. (Although it is sad what happened)

It is highly unlikely the same would happen here.

Answer 10

I'm not about to vote for a dead guy unless he's better than the live guy (in which case the runner up should get the position).