Here’s what happens if the president-elect dies before the inauguration

Q: Both presidential candidates will be age 70 by inauguration. If the election winner dies before the inauguration, does the VP choice become president or is there a special election? Since both have criminal and/or fraud cases pending or possible, if either is indicted, are they disqualified before inauguration? Finally, what would happen now if Donald Trump really does drop out as some are talking about?

A: Let’s tackle the easiest one first: What would happen if Donald Trump became so fed up with all the sniping and scrutiny that he decided to tell himself, “You’re fired!”

The answer is clear: Rule 9 of the Republican National Committee, which covers “Filling Vacancies in Nominations,” stipulates that should the party’s presidential or vice presidential candidate leave the ticket, the vacancy would be filled by either staging another national convention or by the party committee itself. According to the rules, Mike Pence, the current ticket’s No. 2, would be given no special consideration.

Given the logistics, it’s almost certain another convention would be out of the question, so the problem would be handled in a committee meeting. There, committee members representing a given state would cast the same number of votes as that state was entitled to at the convention. If a state’s members disagree over various candidates, the votes are divided equally among the voting members. The winning candidate must receive a majority of all votes entitled to be cast.

In 1912, when Republican VP candidate James Sherman died just before the election, the RNC scheduled a meeting on Nov. 12 to pick a replacement, but canceled plans after Woodrow Wilson won in a romp. You might also remember in 1972 when the DNC had to approve George McGovern’s selection of Sargent Shriver as a running mate after Thomas Eagleton withdrew because of his history of depression and electroconvulsive therapy.

The question about an indicted candidate also seems straightforward. Because there most likely would be no trial before the election, the candidates would be assumed innocent until proven guilty. Even if an indictment came before Nov. 8 and voters looked past it as a potential disqualification, an indicted president-elect presumably could take office even under the cloud of legal troubles. The Constitution makes no reference to such things.

The only qualifications, according to Article II, Section 1, are that a person has to be a natural-born citizen, be 35 years old and have been a resident within the U.S. for 14 years. If you want a real-life example, just look at Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who went on trial this week on a laundry list of charges and even has lost her law license, yet has retained her state job.

Your first question is the trickiest because it would depend on exactly when the presumed president-elect dies. As you may know, you will be voting in November for an elector committed to your presidential choice. If elected, he or she then will vote for your choice when the Electoral College meets in December. In turn, the college’s vote will be certified by a joint meeting of Congress shortly before the Jan. 20 inauguration. That leaves three possibilities:

If either should die between the election and the day the Electoral College meets, electors pledged to the deceased candidate may vote for any other candidate of their choice. Although there is a patchwork of state laws, no federal law proscribes how an elector must vote if a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated. This wouldn’t be without precedent.

In 1872, when Republican Horace Greeley died on Nov. 28, electors bound to Greeley wound up splitting their votes among four Republican presidential candidates and eight veep hopefuls. It didn’t make any difference — Greeley had lost the popular vote in a landslide to Ulysses Grant — but you can see what a mess this would cause if the electors actually had to choose the president-elect in such a scenario.

If the candidate dies between the Electoral College meeting and Congressional certification, you’re really in uncharted territory, because the framers of the Constitution apparently never considered the possibility. Chances are the person who won the Electoral College vote would be considered the president-elect and, under Section 3 of the 20th Amendment, the vice-president-elect would be sworn in as president. Finally, if the candidate should die in that short window between the congressional OK and the inauguration, that 20th Amendment would take precedence and the veep-elect would get the keys to the Oval Office.

By the way, you owe Hillary an apology. Born Oct. 26, 1947, she will be only 69 and 2 months old on Inauguration Day — and you know how touchy some people are about their age. Donald Trump was born June 14, 1946.

Q: Did Donald Trump ever publish his tax returns? The last I heard there was an audit going on.

A: His doctor gave him a clean bill of physical health, but unless he makes another about-face we will not be privy to his financial well-being.

On Dec. 14, Trump released a letter from his personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, who concluded in typical Trumpian style that “if elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

During the past 39 years, Trump has had no significant medical problems, Bornstein wrote. In his most recent exam, he had a blood pressure of 110/65, had lost 15 pounds in the past year and his physical strength and stamina were “extraordinary.” His only meds are a daily baby aspirin and a low dose of statin.

As recently as July 27, Trump took even the slightest hope that he would release his tax info off life support.

“Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them,” Paul Manafort, his campaign manager, said on “CBS This Morning.”

For the record, an audit does not preclude anyone from publicizing his or her returns. Richard Nixon released his in 1973 even as he was being audited for returns filed between 1968 and 1972.

Today’s trivia

Who once ruled that Van Dyke beards are not “inherently evil”?

Answer to Wednesday’s trivia: When its computers crashed Monday, Delta Air Lines must have felt they had gone back to 1924, when the company was formed in Macon, Ga., as the world’s first crop-dusting service to combat the boll weevil that infested area cotton fields. Four years later, the company renamed itself Delta Air Service after the Mississippi Delta region served by the airline when it moved to Monroe, La. Passenger service started in 1929 on a route between Dallas and Jackson, Miss.

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 8:59 AM with the headline "Here’s what happens if the president-elect dies before the inauguration."