Although the White House claims that the US President has a mild coronavirus infection, the very fact that he was infected one month before the election raised questions about what would happen if Donald Trump did not live to vote or be inaugurated.
The first question is: Is it possible to postpone the elections scheduled for November 3? It is indeed possible, because the Constitution gives the US Congress the right to determine the date of elections. True, the law also states that voting must take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November every four years.
Furthermore, this scenario is unlikely because of the democrats’ unprincipled desire to get rid of Donald Trump. In the event of force majeure, the Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives will do its utmost to ensure that the elections are held on time. Ultimately, this will mean that their elderly candidate, Joe Biden, will be the only candidate.
Thus, while postponing the election is possible, this scenario is unlikely. In addition, voting in the USA has not been postponed a single time so far.
In the event that a candidate dies on the eve of an election, both parties have a mechanism for electing a new candidate. The only problem is that there is no time left to start the procedure. Ultimately, a replacement candidate will have to change ballots, and in two dozen states they have already been sent to voters as part of a Democrat-initiated postal vote.
That is, if the legislators do not reschedule the election, the Americans will still choose between Biden and Trump on 3 November, even if one of them is dead by then.
The situation is worsened by the fact that elections in the USA are held in two stages. For example, after the popular vote, the final decision is made by the electoral college, which will only meet on 14 December. It will vote for one of the candidates and the winner must receive at least 270 out of 538 votes.
The delicacy of the situation is that more than half of the states require voters to vote for the winner of the national vote. Furthermore, the laws of most states do not stipulate a scenario of a sudden death of a candidate.
Lara Brown, director of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, notes that if a candidate from one party dies, another party may challenge in court whether electors should be allowed to vote for his or her replacement.
“The most interesting question is how the Supreme Court will resolve such disputes”, – she told Reuters.
If the winner of the election dies after the decision of the electoral college, but before the results of the vote are recognised by Congress, the situation is even worse. According to the American Constitution, if an elected president dies before the day of inauguration, the duties of head of state are transferred to the vice president. But there is a “hole” in US law that makes it unclear whether a candidate will become elected president immediately after the decision of the Electoral College or whether Congress will first have to confirm the results of the election.
That is, legislators may be able to reject votes for a deceased candidate, even if he was a potential race leader. In this case, no one will get a majority vote and the House of Representatives will have to choose the next president. Earlier News Front reported that Democrats were considering this scenario even before Trump was infected with the Coronavirus.
If, however, the elected president dies before his inauguration, but after Congress has recognised the vote, the elected vice president will be sworn in on 20 January.