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[Max™]

Where are you getting the flooded part for California? heh.

Anyways, theres apparently chatter about the GOP mulling a scenario of Pence leaving the ticket. I fail to see how that would help, other than maybe possibly salvaging his own political career. Might also create problems with the electoral college because, well, how do you deal with voting for a running mate who dropped out and being replaced by whoever Trump decides to replace him with.

I think they meant "washed away by mudslides and earthquakes" which to be fair is close enough in a "horseshoes and hand grenades" sense.

Regarding the running mate and whatnot:

If no candidate receives a majority of the electoral vote (currently at least 270), the President is determined by the rules outlined by the 12th Amendment. Specifically, the selection of President would then be decided by a ballot of the House of Representatives. For the purposes of electing the President, each state has only one vote. A ballot of the Senate is held to choose the Vice President. In this ballot, each senator has one vote. The House of Representatives has chosen the victor of the presidential race only twice, in 1800 and 1824; the Senate has chosen the victor of the vice-presidential race only once, in 1836.

If the President is not chosen by Inauguration Day, the Vice President-elect acts as President. If neither are chosen by then, Congress by law determines who shall act as President, pursuant to the 20th Amendment.

Unless there are faithless electors, disputes, or other controversies, the events in December and January mentioned above are largely a formality since the winner can be determined based on the state-by-state popular vote results. Between the general election and Inauguration Day, this apparent winner is referred to as the "President-elect" (unless it is a sitting President that has won re-election).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election#Electoral_college

[Leafsnail]

Some of the Republicans who withdrew their endorsement of Trump have said they will be voting Pence. It seems more likely that they'll try and convince Pence to stay on in the hopes that they can reframe the election as Pence vs Clinton.

[Max™]

Some of the Republicans who withdrew their endorsement of Trump have said they will be voting Pence. It seems more likely that they'll try and convince Pence to stay on in the hopes that they can reframe the election as Pence vs Clinton.

I think that would fall under the "disputes or other controversies", but I'm not sure how they would handle the inevitable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector issue in states where lots of people might be cool with the elector ACTUALLY voting for Pence, but have laws against them doing so once they pledged to vote for Trump.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Perhaps more importantly, it still doesn't stop the indie Trump scenario. Not even mentioning the fact that any contest goes to the Supreme Court, which is still down a seat. Gophers have gone and put themselves in a serious bind this time.

I'd love to see the look on the Zodiac Killer's face if Pence were to usurp the ticket, though.

[Reelya]

"This does not represent the man that I know," she said. "He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world."

Yeah, important issues such as not electing a lunatic to run the world's most powerful nation.

[smjjames]

... has that ever happened before, actually? The VP candidate leaving the ticket ~a month before the general. Because I certainly can't remember it happening off the top of my head.

The only precedent I can find are the 1912 election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1912 where the incumbent VP died less than a week before the election. Apparently the replacement receieved the electoral votes that would otherwise have gone to Sherman (the incumbent VP that died). And the 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1972#The_vice_presidential_vote one which has a closer resemblance to what might happen if Pence were to drop out.

Still though, both of those situations and this one are unique to their moment of time, so, while there is a bit of precedent for handling the situation, the entire rest of the surroundings are far more complex.

[Max™]

... has that ever happened before, actually? The VP candidate leaving the ticket ~a month before the general. Because I certainly can't remember it happening off the top of my head.

The only precedent I can find are the 1912 election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1912 where the incumbent VP died less than a week before the election. Apparently the replacement receieved the electoral votes that would otherwise have gone to Sherman (the incumbent VP that died). And the 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1972#The_vice_presidential_vote one which has a closer resemblance to what might happen if Pence were to drop out.

Still though, both of those situations and this one are unique to their moment of time, so, while there is a bit of precedent for handling the situation, the entire rest of the surroundings are far more complex.

Man, for those of you that didn't click on that, and don't know the 1972 electoral map off hand, they lowered the voting age to 18, which is why years later Futurama loves to make jokes about Nixon mocking the stupid hippies and sweeping the vote.

I'm glad Trump is... less charming than Nixon... oh god I just threw up a little.

[smjjames]

... has that ever happened before, actually? The VP candidate leaving the ticket ~a month before the general. Because I certainly can't remember it happening off the top of my head.

The only precedent I can find are the 1912 election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1912 where the incumbent VP died less than a week before the election. Apparently the replacement receieved the electoral votes that would otherwise have gone to Sherman (the incumbent VP that died). And the 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1972#The_vice_presidential_vote one which has a closer resemblance to what might happen if Pence were to drop out.

Still though, both of those situations and this one are unique to their moment of time, so, while there is a bit of precedent for handling the situation, the entire rest of the surroundings are far more complex.

Man, for those of you that didn't click on that, and don't know the 1972 electoral map off hand, they lowered the voting age to 18, which is why years later Futurama loves to make jokes about Nixon mocking the stupid hippies and sweeping the vote.

I'm glad Trump is... less charming than Nixon... oh god I just threw up a little.

I meant the, uh, situation with the VP on the ticket. Didn't notice that about the 1972 map because I wasn't paying attention to that.

[Max™]

Yeah, I was reading up into the candidates because I couldn't remember which election 72 was offhand.

[Rolan7]

Some of the Republicans who withdrew their endorsement of Trump have said they will be voting Pence. It seems more likely that they'll try and convince Pence to stay on in the hopes that they can reframe the election as Pence vs Clinton.

I think that would fall under the "disputes or other controversies", but I'm not sure how they would handle the inevitable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector issue in states where lots of people might be cool with the elector ACTUALLY voting for Pence, but have laws against them doing so once they pledged to vote for Trump.

That's a pretty interesting article!  Fun trivia, like two candidates dying before the ballot took place.

I was pretty sure faithless electors had never altered a result, but apparently they did in 1836.  I don't exactly understand how, though:

That election was the only occasion when faithless electors altered the outcome of the electoral college vote. The Democrat ticket won states with 170 of the 294 electoral votes, but the 23 Virginia electors abstained in the vote for Vice President, so the Democrat candidate, Richard Mentor Johnson, got only 147 (exactly half), and was not elected. However, Johnson was instead elected Vice President by the U.S. Senate, so faithless electors have never changed the final outcome of an election.

[Reelya]

The operative clause there is "altered the outcome of the electoral college vote", which is not the same thing as saying they managed to change the final outcome of the election itself. It's like the difference between a trial and the final verdict. The "final verdict" takes into account appeals and whatnot, but "altered the course of the trial on XYZ date" is a more specific claim.

[smjjames]

Well, this election year has been pretty crazy, so, I wouldn't neccesarily be surprised if some people tried to pull something in the Electoral College.

[RedKing]

The only way the GOP can be successful with reframing the election as "Pence vs. Clinton" would be if they guaranteed that Trump will be immediately taken out by a sniper later on Inauguration Day. Which is a tempting offer.....except for the whole Mike Pence part.

Wanting to grope women = normal.

Thank you for self-identifying as a sexual predator, new guy.

[Reelya]

Maybe they can pre-impeach Trump then vote for him, get Pence to take over straight away for actual decision making.

[SalmonGod]

No.

No. No. No. No. No.