What happens to the election if Biden dies before it?
- With considerable time til the election
- Not enough time to change the election
Assuming Biden wins on election day, what is the procedure at various stages throughout the election if Biden dies?
- After election day but before votes are counted
- Votes counted but not certified by Congress
- Certified but not inaugurated
- Any other stages I’ve missed
There is a procedure for this. To simplify the answer, Kamala Harris will become President on inauguration day in any of your listed scenarios, since she’s the current VP/VP-elect.
It’s theoretically possible that if Biden drops dead today, that the DNC could manage to pivot to a new contender, but there are two significant problems with that:
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It’s suuuper late in the process. They already called the primaries for Biden, so he has the delegates. If he dies, they go to his VP, so it would be up to Harris to give them to someone else at that point if anybody else were to be selected (essentially dropping out of the race herself). This is a bad move because giving delegates to someone who didn’t even primary will seem undemocratic, coronating somebody that the people did not even endorse for the ticket.
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Replacing Biden with someone else doesn’t give them much time to campaign. A big part of the election cycle is traveling to swing states to convince those people to vote for you. It’s not that those people are suddenly going to go vote for the other guy (Trump, in this case), but they’re far more likely to stay home because they won’t be energized for this newcomer who didn’t have enough time to court their votes, or to convince them to turn out for their policies/platform rather than be apathetic about the outcome of the election.
I’m surprised the CIA doesn’t know the answer to this, so they have to come to lemmy to ask
amendment 20, section 3. the vice president-elect gets inaugurated
And the 25th regarding death and disability, depending on when he kicks off. For those interested in learning more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
I think it’d also count as a full term in office so far as the rule against running more than twice goes. So you could run for reelection, but that isn’t a “one werid trick” to getting three terms in office.
I’m just going to point out that trump is only 3 years younger, and has far more risk factors for heart attack and strokes.
Why does everyone seem to think Biden is the one who will die first.
Because Trump now thinks he has full immunity to assassinate his political rivals
Let’s look at oldest mainline Presidential nominees in history:
- Biden - 2024 (81)
- Trump - 2024 (78)
- Biden - 2020 (77)
- Trump - 2020 (74)
- Reagan - 1984 (73)
- Trump - 2016 (70)
- Reagan - 1980 (69)
Next President who was elected was William Henry Harrison, but we’re getting “young” enough there may be unelected nominees I’m not aware of.
Also: fun fact. Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency lifespan has been over 43 years so far, while Teddy Roosevelt was only 42 when elected Predident.
Why does everyone seem to think Biden is the one who will die first.
because we recently saw them in televised debate and one of them looked in significantly worse shape than the other.
I did not take him as in worst shape. I saw a person who couldn’t believe the bullshit being said by a narcissistic moron. I would have the same look at my face in disbelief if I had to debate with someone that I thought still asked for crayons at a restaurant.
I saw a person who couldn’t believe the bullshit being said by a narcissistic moron. I would have the same look at my face in disbelief
that’s really not an argument in biden’s favor.
he had known trump for at least 9 years and he had been lying narcissistic moron that whole time. if he didn’t expect the most expectable thing in the world from him, and being surprised threw him off the rails in such manner that he wasn’t able to put together coherent sentence, how is he qualified for a job where there are actual surprises of enormous consequences on a daily basis?
TBH because of his physical presentation at the debate. Yeah, it’s short-sighted, but welcome to the public thought process. Whatever is churned thru the latest 15 minute media cycle seems to be what they believe.
Doesn’t matter if he had a cold and was dosed up on NyQuil or whatever; his voice was weak, he stumbled over making coherent sentence multiple times, and he just had a blank, open-mouthed stare when between questions. I’ve had shitty colds and been drugged up with cold meds and I know that feel of being sore, exhausted, hoarse, and disconnected. You just want to go have a lie-down, not a public debate against a raging, insulting, narcissistic asshole. But it takes someone willing to understand all that and give Biden the benefit of the doubt.
There are far too many that start from the “old” part and just attribute everything possible to that which they find disagreeable.
his voice was weak, he stumbled over making coherent sentence multiple times, and he just had a blank, open-mouthed stare when between questions.
And apparently that matters more than the blatant lies and non-answers coming from the other side. Gotta say, Americans do seem significantly dumber than the average world citizen.
Gotta say, Americans do seem significantly dumber than the average world citizen.
Presumably what an American once said about Germans. It can happen anywhere with the right stream of propaganda.
And apparently that matters more than the blatant lies and non-answers coming from the other side.
yes, for estimating whether someone dies due to health condition, that health condition matters significantly more than someone else lying. 😜
I can’t unpaywall the article. The assumption he’d take some kind of meds is my own.
Groups have been trying to push this message since the debate. It’s not terribly effective for anyone who actually watched.
A cold and cold medicine don’t account for the very clear confusion and sundowning the rest of us witnessed.
The right all week accused Biden of taking performance enhancing stimulants. I’m unclear where they got that information, until you remember one thing. When the GOP accuses the left of something, it usually comes out later that its because thats what THEY feel guilty about themselves doing.
Also consider what happens if Trump dies at any of these stages - he’s almost the same age so all else being equal he’s almost as likely to die during the same period
I bet they already have the conspiracy theories prepped for when Trump dies. It would be interesting for someone to make a Reddit post asking for MAGA to share their theories that someone is trying to terminate Trump, so that when he eventually passes from natural causes, we could pull that up as relevant info to see why no one did anything beforehand to prevent the attempt or if the conspiracy that emerges wasn’t stated before it happened.
Bonus round with the upcoming (small) bird flu epidemic:
What if both die days before the election due to a sudden illness?
