OK. I need some answers.

What is the legal precedent, if one exists or is provided by statute, for the following situations:

1. What if one candidate drops out just before the election? https://www.google.com/search?q=hillary+drop+out&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8. I'm either not reading deeply enough or no one knows.

2. What is one candidate dies or becomes otherwise physically/mentally unable to take on the tasks of the presidency just before the election?

3. What if a candidate is indicted prior to the election date on federal charges?

4. Even if a person is only suspected but not indicted, is there an avenue through which the citizenry can present a preponderance of evidence that makes it clear that person should not be placed in a position to exonerate him or her self?

5. What powers do the President, Congress or the Supreme Court have in such cases?

6. I trust the members here to have even more questions than what I have posed in the week before the wierdest American presidential election ever. I want an injunction!

This is what has been missing from our conversation - legal recourse, legal precedent, constitutional rights, etc. et al.

It is my opinion that regardless the circumstances, the Will of the People is what should be the highest consideration. It would seem to me that the Constitution supports that notion.

Candidates choose vice presidential running mates - the people do not. Although it is the law of the land that should the president die while in office the vice president should take his place, that still does not sit right with me. Perhaps temporarily, but it would seem to me that in such a time, determining the will of the people should take precedence. What if the VP is suspected of malfeasance? An election outside the norm should take place asap after a president dies or becomes disabled.

What about Reagan will his full-on raging Alzheimers? We didn't elect Nancy or any of his cabinet to run the country. His dementia should not have been kept secret from the public. We should have been given the opportunity to elect a replacement for the duration of his term. We should have been given the opportunity to expose his condition. But the presidency has become so highly insulated that even Obama has been swaggering around. That annoys me.

So I know what my conscience tells me how things SHOULD be. I'm just unaware of what the law says, and if anyone knows, please inform me and others who do not know.

Thanks.

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Pricknick's picture

We should have been given the opportunity to elect a replacement for the duration of his term.

Who is this "We" you speak of.
This is no "We". There is them.
Many of your questions can only be answered by those who know political law. And as quickly as that changes, you, they, we and I are stumped.
Let's make it up as we go shall "We"?

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

reflectionsv37's picture

and it would certainly be a constitutional crisis if those scenarios were to play out before election day. At this point, I'd welcome it over the thought of Hillary in particular, or Trump becoming president.

If Hillary dropped out next week, I doubt Kaine would automatically be considered the next in line, should the voting go for Hillary. Like you say, we didn't vote for him, she picked him. If however, she stepped down the day after the election, then we would very likely be stick with Kaine and little could be done about it.

If Hillary was indicted this week, I don't think that would disqualify her from taking office, but it sure would move this already upside down election to another dimension.

At this point, all I can say is bring it on!!! Why not make sure this is the most bizarre election in US history for the next 1000 years. Assuming we survive until next week!

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

it should be Sanders on the ballot, as he never ceded his delegates, meaning he would be the only person left that the party voted for still running. Not going to assume they would do that though. They'd probably appoint Kaine or Biden.

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burdened with an obsessive devotion to its written constitution.

mere written language cannot possibly contain and elucidate all of the terms within which a sustainable republican (or democratic) system of self-government must function. something else -- a basic, general understanding of the social contract, an understanding that once upon a time would have been labeled a "common sense" -- must be operative.

otherwise, you get what wisconsin got: lawless government, unrestrained and unconstrained, seditiously undermining every enscribed safeguard, rubbling, perhaps for generations, the institutions of democracy.

On the night that Ernst Roehm died voices rang out
In the rolling Bavarian hills
And swept through the cities and danced in the gutters
Grown strong like the joining of wills

Oh echoed away like a roar in the distance
In moonlight carved out of steel
Singing "All the lonely, so long and so long
You don't know me I long, how I long
You can't hold me, I'm strong now I'm strong
Stronger than your law

[I made a couple of minor edits to this post, including replacing the word "burying" with the word "rubbling", having decided to "verb the noun", because it made me happy. Apparently, it's also a relatively new slang verb, comparable to chortling.]

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Lenzabi's picture

Bit of a discussion about such a thing here, if they have to drop or die mid election, between nomination and being elected.
https://www.quora.com/What-would-happen-if-one-of-the-two-candidates-of-...

If as some answer the DNC just gets to choose, it would mean a Hillary drop will leave us Kaine, Maybe Bernie, or anyone else they felt like picking. I have already voted for Jill so if they reinstated Bernie, as they want to win, hard to say what would happen.

More articles and discussions abound:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hillary+drop+out&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=wha...?

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

so many on this blog have voted early. There is no knowing what might happen in the next 7 days. Will they give you a re-do if you voted early? I doubt it.

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There will be little comfort regardless of when I vote. The horror of our future with either likely victor will not end any sooner, the prospects for a stable,survivable planet will not improve.

Any remaining hope for our electoral system lies in our uncertain future, and in viable political parties that do not yet exist. Regardless of the outcome of this election, we are in for some difficult times.

Buckle up people, it's going to get bumpy.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

TheOtherMaven's picture

because standing in long lines on Election Day is just not an option. We do the best we can with the situation as it stands at the time.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

terriertribe's picture

For example, I will be in South America on election day.

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Now interviewing signature candidates. Apply within.

bondibox's picture

It was pointed out over the summer that only Hillary can decide to remove herself from the ticket. Even if she's indicted, it still rolls on.

But IMO it's a big difference between a candidate dying and dropping out. I believe if she drops out she gets to select her replacement. If she dies, then it's probably up to the DNC to choose her replacement. Some say Bernie's convention nomination preserves his spot at #2, but this is the DNC we're talking about, the ones who contend that they're under no obligation to follow their own bylaws.

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F the F'n D's

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

It's our tacit acknowledgement that a wretched hive of scum and villainy like the DNC won't obey the law, or their own rules, anyway. We'd get Kaine. Possibly Biden, if Obama were motivated to push for it.

But I don't think Hillary is going to die before next Tuesday, and if she's not dead, she will be the candidate.

From her cold, dead, fingers, etc

Don't try to take Veruca's golden ticket away from her:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9mba2qb9do]

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

The era of president Gerald Ford and veep Nelson Rockefeller already seemed very banana-republic-y and small-d democratic in name only.

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Whatever is decided next Tuesday, it isn't set in stone until Jan 6 when electorates cast. They could all just decide to put in Jill Stein, or Jesse Ventura for that matter. While there is legal recourse when the electorate goes against the election, the few electorates who bucked the will were never charged.
As far as VP, at one time most votes in an election became Pres, second most votes became VP. I think it was when Jackson got stuck with Van Buren as VP that it was changed.
I always thought second place should go to VP. To act as a foil, moderator, and conscience.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

TheOtherMaven's picture

That was the year Aaron Burr, intended to be Vice-President, nearly stole the election from Thomas Jefferson. A lot of people were suspicious of Jefferson's religious attitude and personal behavior, but they were even more suspicious of Burr (with good reason). Jefferson pulled it out in the House of Representatives by one vote, and Burr was relegated to the No. 2 spot (he was bounced off the ticket entirely in 1804). And an amendment was rushed through setting up paired tickets (President / Vice President) so that situation would never arise again.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Memories from my youth tend to be foggy.

Did notice https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=9HA1i6NqZJ4 this in my YouTube queue this morning.

(on a kindle and embed doesn't seem to work for me)

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

Bisbonian's picture

Until inauguration day, they are not the President. Her could be indicted as late as January 5th, whereupon all heck would really break loose, but she wouldn't be the President.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

for anything She ever did at State.
And then She pardons Obama for everything he did as President.
It's all about the Constitutional Law, doncha know.

"He's gone." - Brazil

Stein - Baraka
2016

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Damnit Janet's picture

he'll pardon her like he's done with all the other war criminals...

gawd we are so screwed.

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

elenacarlena's picture

The nominating process is relatively newly democratic, deals used to be and probably are again forged in back rooms without the input of the people, parties can nominate whoever they like, if we don't want to go along with the parties we can vote for someone not affiliated with them. So the Dem party bylaws may or may not say that the #2 vote getter would take over if something happened to #1 prior to the election, but they have already violated their own bylaws and would probably do it again. They are group statements of how they will practice, not actual laws, so no penalties attach.

In short, they'd probably give it to Kaine or Biden, not Bernie, even though by rights it should to go to Bernie and without him they'll probably lose to Trump.

As for afterward, if Kaine were as corrupt and also indicted, it goes to Speaker of the House. That's how we got rid of Nixon, then Agnew, and ended up with Gerald Ford.

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(or federal, for that matter) laws that governed these processes.

Note also that the Electors themselves would also have authority to choose someone else, quite regardless of anything the DNC likes or doesn't.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Damnit Janet's picture

thats my question Smile

but your questions and answers are so needed

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison