Republican National Committee Rule #9
My personal opinion is this rule needs expounded on better.
There are 4 different timeframes that ultimately need to be considered:
-post-primaries/pre-Convention - Rule 9 above does not apply; however, a lot of delegates that RNC Rules say you're sworn to vote for a certain candidate suddenly don't have a candidate to vote for at the National Convention, and you're not going to redo the primaries; only example I can think of this happening is RFK in 1968, and Humphrey assumed all of his delegates in a controversial decision
-post-Convention/pre-election - this is what Rule 9 intends to address; with early voting though now occurring so early, you can't change the ballot once the first votes are cast; if it's in the month before an election, a dead candidate is going to be on ballots; this occurred in my county in the 2016 election where one of the candidates died 4 days prior to the election, and in the ensuing lawsuit (elect 3, all 3 Republicans won, 1 of them was deceased, Democrat that finished 4th said he should've taken the seat); the Election Board and the judge both said state law needs updated to account for this scenario
https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/42760-judge-affirms-dead-candidate-winner-in-allen-county-election-post-election/pre-Electoral College - this happened in 1872 with Horace Greeley and 1912 with James Sherman, who were both on losing tickets; the parties in both instance nominated replacements, although in Greeley's case the votes were split to several people; votes for deceased people are disqualified
-post-Electoral College/pre-inauguration - the parties here can do nothing; this is all handled by the 25th Amendment; the VP would either become president or the president would nominate his replacement VP; if both die, it goes to the Speaker of the House
