Replacing a Candidate or Nominee

Before Election Day, replacing a presidential nominee is a party matter. Democratic and Republican rules let their national committees fill a vacancy on the ticket, as Democrats did when George McGovern's running mate withdrew in 1972 and when the party nominated a new candidate after the President withdrew from the race on July 21, 2024. Each state sets deadlines for changing names on its ballots, and late changes can mean early and mail ballots already cast list the original candidate. Voters technically choose electors, who are generally bound by state law to support the party's nominee.

Congressional races follow state law. Some states let parties name a replacement, others leave a dead or withdrawn candidate on the ballot, and if that candidate wins the seat is declared vacant and filled by appointment or special election. Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash three weeks before the 2000 election and still won a Senate seat, to which his widow was appointed. Dead candidates have won House races several times.

After Election Day the rules turn on timing. If a winning presidential candidate dies before the electors vote in December, the party and electors would decide whom to support, which happened in 1872 when losing candidate Horace Greeley died and his electors scattered their votes. If a President-elect dies after the electoral votes are counted, the Twentieth Amendment makes the Vice President-elect the President. The period between the electors' votes and the count in Congress is the least clear, and scholars disagree on whether the winner is already President-elect then.