# What happens if a candidate dies on election day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 3, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904 "2008-11-03T19:14:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904/21 "2008-11-03T22:14:56Z")
> [@Bootis](#): > > What happened to the elector who refused to vote for Gore? Was it political suicide for him, as mentioned it would be? People here seem fairly certain its not anything to worry about, but seeing that it happened a couple times in recent history… Nobody gave a crap about her, because it didn’t make any difference. Gore lost with 266 votes, and he would have lost with 267 as well. > [@Chronos](#): > > ``` > Right, the original idea was not that whoever was choosing electors (originally the state legislators) would say "I'm choosing this elector because he'll vote for John Smith"; supposedly, the folks choosing electors would say "I'm choosing this elector because he's a wise, educated man, and I trust that he will make a good choice". > > ``` And the amusing thing is that, after Washington left office, that didn’t happen. I remember reading about a letter this New England voter wrote to the newspaper, complaining about a faithless elector, saying [paraphrased] “I picked Mr. Samuals [not his real name] to Chuse, not to Think.” In other words, even in the very first election (or possibly the second or third, certainly very early on), there was an expectation that electors would follow the will of their state, not their own counsel. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904/22 "2008-11-03T22:17:18Z")
> [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](#): > > Missed the edit window - to continue: > > The original idea was that the electors would choose the president by themselves, exercising their own judgement. These days it’s felt that the people should elect the president, but the constitution had already been written so the system is stuck with electors. > > The answer to this problem was to introduce a popular vote in each state to choose electors who are pledged to vote for a specific candidate - so that, for example, when an American “votes for Obama”, what he/she is really doing is voting for a group of potential electors who are pledged in turn to vote for Obama. These elector candidates are put up by the local Democratic party organisation and are party loyalists who can be relied on to cast their electoral votes the right way. Do you have a cite for that? I don’t disbelieve you…I’d just like to read more about it. ---
**Author:** ![unclelem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ac91a4/32.png) [@unclelem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclelem)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904/23 "2008-11-04T00:08:47Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > If an elector is not obligated by law to vote for the person whose name is on the ballot, then ballots need to list the elector names, and not the names of the candidates themselves. To do it any other way seems dishonest if not fraudulent. The names of the electors used to be listed on the ballot as they were directly selected. This has pretty much evolved into selecting and voting for an entire slate of electors chosen by the candidate’s party. My source says that only a few states still list the names of the electors under the candidate’s name. My Google Fu must be weak, as I was unable to identify which states those were. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904/24 "2008-11-04T12:47:20Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Do you have a cite for that? I don’t disbelieve you…I’d just like to read more about it. I’m not sure which bit of my post you want a cite for, but Wikipedia has a good article on the Electoral College: [Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)) ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904/25 "2008-11-04T12:59:16Z")
Another interesting link is to the US National Archives, [here,](http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/certificates.html) where you can view the actual ballot papers used by the electors in 2004. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904/26 "2008-11-04T15:00:09Z")
[http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/senate.missouri/](http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/senate.missouri/) It has happened but not for president. It was Ashcroft losing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-a-candidate-dies-on-election-day/470904.md?page=1)