Billy Long: This is what happens if Hillary or Donald dies before the election

The bodies with the ultimate say are the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

The RNC’s 168 members would gather and decide between two options. The first option involves having another Republican National Convention and rounding up all 2, 472 delegates.

The second option is letting the three members representing each state, territory and District of Columbia—a committeeman, committeewoman and state chairman—decide. Unlike the first option, the second choice allows each state to have the same number of votes as it did at the convention, however, not all three individuals have to agree. They are allowed to divide the votes up as well as allow voting by proxy.

The DNC is much different. Their process has only one option and that option involves the DNC members gathering to vote on a replacement. Unlike the RNC, the DNC doesn’t allow for proxy voting and only needs a majority of the members present. The meeting is called by the committee chairman or chairwoman.

The process of each party sounds fairly easy. However, there could be major problems with each system. The main one being that a new candidate means having to change the name on the ballot. If a presidential candidate were to pass away, replacing that name would become challenging and sometimes even impossible due to time constraints.

Even though the name on the ballot might be different, it wouldn’t actually change who the candidate was, even if people voted for the deceased candidate. The Electoral College is still going to vote for the candidate that the particular party chose to replace their candidate.

Thankfully, we haven’t had a situation like this, but if we ever had to replace a presidential candidate, there is a process in place that the two major parties have, though they are fundamentally different approaches.