It’s worth asking: What would happen if health problems caused one or both major-party presidential nominees to withdraw from the November ballot after each party’s national convention has concluded?
With two presumptive nominees well into their 70s, and with a pandemic raging, the question is very reasonable. One need not cast aspersions on the mental capacities of either candidate to suggest that both parties should prepare for such a situation, just in case such an unfortunate eventuality arises.
The identity of the replacement candidates would be a tricky question for either party. But fortunately, it’s quite easy to find, clearly spelled out in the rules of each party, the method for filling vacancies on the national tickets.
In both cases, national committee members would not be bound by primary, caucus, or convention results. If a vacancy occurs, the committee members can make whatever choice they think is best for their parties’ beliefs and political fortunes.
Each of the two major parties has ballot access for the presidential election in all 50 states. And the ballot line belongs to the party — not the individual candidate. As long as the party meets each state’s deadline for filling the ballot line, the party, acting through its national committee, can decide what name to put on it.
Barring some crisis, the rules for both parties make the choice of the national party conventions paramount. Neither party committee can easily force a replacement for the nominee chosen by the conventions — but both committees can fill a spot that becomes empty through withdrawal or death. And the rules of each quite specifically provide for such circumstances, including a provision for a meeting to be called to handle such a vacancy.
For Republicans, each state (plus each of several territories) has exactly three members on the committee: one state head, plus one national committeeman and one national committeewoman. That’s the easy part. The hard part is that while the committee ordinarily operates by majority rule, it does not do so when choosing a national replacement candidate. Instead, each state’s three-member team controls the same number of votes as the state had delegates at the national convention that year — numbers which are themselves determined through a complicated formula. If the three committee members from each state do not agree on a replacement choice, each one individually controls one-third of the state’s weighted vote. A majority of the votes, allocated in this manner, rules.
The Democratic National Committee is far larger than the RNC, and its membership is determined by a complicated, even convoluted, series of formulas. Still, once called into a special meeting to consider a national ticket vacancy, each of those committee members controls one and only one vote. A simple majority vote is required for a new nominee to emerge.
So, there. If the necessity arises, the means are there for replacing a nominee who dies or withdraws voluntarily.
But if you’re like me and you just feel disenchanted with both President Trump and Joe Biden, and you wish the committees could force a replacement for either or both expected nominees, that’s no more than a pipe dream.
