Strange q- can You help?
Sylwester Zwierz
😉
So- apart of playing strange games like erepublik my other hobby is writing. I write for fun but even tho, I like that my stories keep up to reality. Story of my newest novel begins 7th nov 2050 (British holiday Remembrance Day). I'm so strict about facts that I even calculated radio transmission delay between Earth and Mars at this exactly day so my story have delay in communication which mirror real delay. In this book I mixed sci-fi with political fiction, action and catastrophe. My question is about political fiction part/
Even before I start work on it I knew that big part of story will be written from position of US president and his family. While I was working on his bits I found out that November is traditional month of presidential election in US so I decided to finish presidency of my hero and include election campaign and election day drama into story. Usually when I write I stick to plan which I work out earlier. But sometimes I allow myself to drift away from desired path- this time drift was quite huge and at some point I asked myself is it possible, can I keep it aligned with real law in US.
I my story there is three candidates and week before election day they are very close- republican has 33% in polls, democrat 30% and independent 29%. But week before election there is world wide ...cataclysm... and republican candidate dies (along with millions of other people all over the world).
At this point I stop writing and start to research how situation will go one from this point. Problem is- I cant find any info about it. So here my question: what happens if presidential candidate dies week before election? Party nominate his vice for president? They nominate someone else? Election go on normal or someone can delay it?
Any help will be appreciated. Thx! Btw: please comment even if U dont know answe- I need 25 comments
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Comments
I dont know anything abt RL US politics. But heres a comment anyway.
Can I get to read the novel? This story seems interesting.
its in polish mate. and its still work in progress
v
Probably election would be delayed but Don't know
FYI one additional complication is that in the US we do not really vote for the president. We vote for members of the electoral college - electors (which were selected by the candidate/party). Each state gets a number of electoral members based on number of senators & congressmen.
The actual election is done by the electoral college sometime in December. In most states the electors are free to vote for whomever they want - for some early presidential elections it took several rounds of voting before a President was chosen. In recent times there have been a few electors who did not follow the voters wish - e.g. in 2004 John Edwards a VP candidate actual got an electors vote for President.
A similar thing happens in other countries, the President is not directly elected, but parties and lists are, then the people elected to be in the Parliament can elect the President, In this case, if someone dies, nothing weird would happen, as you are not electing him but a list.
It's not quite the same. The "electors" are in fact people, however, those people serve no purpose other than to go to the official vote place and vote the way they were instructed (unless they feel EXTREMELY STRONGLY OTHERWISE and can vote for a different candidate). It's basically like we're voting for the President, but, with a buffer in between.
Ah oke, here the electors also make laws and regular parlament stuff.
Yes. I found out about those elctors earlier and I decide to "fix" it. In my world US change election style to direct in about 2030. Every people vote on one name in election day 🙂 I dont really understand this electors thing so I make it easier for me 😉
OK
V
8
If the death occurred before the popular election, it would be the party's national committee's responsibility to fill the vacancy (and the replacement candidate must receive a majority vote).
Likewise, if the death occurred before the electoral vote the party's national committee fills the vacancy.
If the death occurred after the electoral vote but before inauguration, then the Vice-President elect becomes President if the President-elect were qualified.
To your question, concerning timeframe - I do not know if a candidate's death one week prior to general election would prompt any delay. I think the general election would be held as scheduled with his/her name on the ballot unless a replacement candidate were selected and qualified in time. We have had a deceased Senator and a deceased State Representative elected. As I understand it, a deceased candidate could win the popular election and the party's NC would be able to replace him/her with a successor candidate prior to electoral college vote.
these rules don't apply to the Don. even if dead, he will be president!
However a disaster of the scope he is talking about could trigger a delay - if it impacts peoples ability to vote
true, martial law, continuity of government, etc
Ah! Disaster is worldwide and affect evry human beign. I didnt think about delay but now I see that I can use it and make more mess- cus current CP is not very liked by 1% and they cant wait to change him. So if I decide to delay election- this could spark a war between US gov and 1%.
Thx. This complicate things 😃
Comment!
😁
v
boop
Comment
You've been added to the FBI watchlist. Congratz.
Rainy's comment is excellent. I, too, would be interested in reading this novel. 😉 Never mind the watch list. A lot of good people are probably on it.
Comment for mission.
There is no precedent for this.
Rainy Sunday has accurately quoted the law. A cataclysmic event could trigger an anomaly though. And in fiction, anything goes!
The way that our government is set up is so that only two parties can exist, mostly through the electoral college - the vote is not a popular vote. Because of this, a 3rd party/independent candidate will seldom get more than 5% of the popular vote. There are exceptions to this (Ross Perot, Teddy Roosevelt), but those men were either very wealthy and could afford to spend for the publicity or already a celebrity.
If a candidate were to die, it would be up to the party of the dead candidate to name a replacement. This has never happened before, but I would imagine that the candidate's running mate (the guy running for vice president) would probably be the party's choice.
Immediately before the election, the ballots are already printed and the voting machines are probably already programmed. This sometimes happens in city elections, where a dead person is on the ballot. The dead person could win, but usually the public will be smart enough to not vote for him.
I swap electoral college to direct vote in 2030. I think its easier to understand that for Polish reader. I dont get this whole electoral college and trying to include it in book would be hard. So- i "fix" US democracy 😉
Vl
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Published in USA?
o7
[removed]
Zwierz w USA 😮
Omg, I have studied that at University and fortgot totally -.-'
I think the idea that an Independent candidate polls at 29% by the year 2050 is a real stretch for US politics. Maybe if the Tea Party splits the Republicans up. You mentioned the novel starting in 2050, but are the events of the novel over several years? 2050 is not a US presidential election year. 2048 and 2052 are.
o7