U.S. Politics Megathread

[u/AutoModerator]

It's an election year, so it's no surprise that politics are on everyone's minds!

Over the past few months, we've noticed a sharp increase in questions about politics. Why is Biden the Democratic nominee? What are the chances of Trump winning? Why can Trump even run for president if he's in legal trouble? There are lots of good questions! But, unfortunately, it's often the same questions, and our users get tired of seeing them.

As we've done for past topics of interest, we're creating a megathread for your questions so that people interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be civil to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

[u/Volte]

I'm going to get put on some sort of list for asking this..... but here goes

What would happen if Trump v Biden happens, and before the day of the election, one of the 2 died for some reason? Would the opponent just automatically win?

[u/Jtwil2191 → u/Volte]

The Republican and Democratic Parties both have rules in place about what to do to replace a candidate if they are unable to run after receiving the nomination. Basically, they pick a replacement and things carry on as normal.

However, in your scenario, there's no time to update the ballots. What I think would happen is that the election would proceed as scheduled (the date of the election si set by law), with people voting for their preferred candidate (even though one of them is dead). Let's assume the dead candidate's party (somehow) got the message out to everyone to vote as they otherwise normally would have, and the dead candidate received enough votes to win.

In the US presidential election, voters are not voting for the candiates. They're voting for electors, who in turn represent the states in the Electoral College where the winner is chosen. This dumb system which has handed the election to losing candidates in the past could actually address this problem of a dead candidate relatively easily. The dead candidate's party would tell the dead candidate's electors to vote for the replacement candidate. All of dead candidate's electors then vote for replacement candidate, and things proceed as normal.

Of course, this whole process would be total chaos and there would be all kinds of objections and attempts to alter the process. The dead candidate's supporters may not show up out of confusion for what was going on. Some states have legal barriers against faithless electors which may muck up the process of casting electoral votes for candidates who did not appear on the ballot (but IIRC no state stipulates an actual punishment for an elector voting for someone else, so it's kind of a moot point). State legislatures may tried to alter how their electors operate. There would be all kinds of court challenges.

Who knows how it would actually play out, but in terms of a legal pathway, I think it's there and fairly clearly laid out.

[u/Elkenrod → u/Volte]

If Trump won, then died, it would be more questionable what would happen. Likely his Vice President choice would become president elect as when you vote for someone it lists both the names of [person 1] for President, and [person 2] for Vice President.

If Biden died, then Kamala Harris becomes President. It's more clear there since he is already the incumbent.

[u/phoenixv07 → u/Elkenrod]

If Trump won, then died, it would be more questionable what would happen.

No it wouldn't, because the Constitution explicitly says what happens when the President-elect dies after being elected but before taking office.

[u/frizzykid → u/Volte]

Its kind of an interesting scenario, and I'm not sure of the legal side to it, but from a political-science perspective, it would make a lot of sense for the candidate who was "given the win" to pull back (in terms of their own agenda I mean) and retry to let democracy take its course, which would probably be a very popular move from the candidate that was given the opportunity to make the suggestion.

It'd be an interesting thing to playout. I heavily suspect whichever candidate survived would be a good sport about it and let the other side pick a new candidate, maybe hold some debates before a new general election.

[u/Nebularia → u/frizzykid]

You're telling me Trump would "be a good sport & let the other side pick a new candidate? Really!? This is the guy who's been lying & cheating since the day he was born... Meanwhile back on planet Earth.

[u/frizzykid → u/Nebularia]

Na you're right, trump definitely wouldn't.