What if Trump drops out at the last minute?

[tawadi]

What would happen then?

[SummerSnow]

1. What happens if a candidate—say Donald Trump—drops out of the presidential race

Rule 9 of the Republican National Committee rules governs "Filling Vacancies in Nominations," and stipulates that should the party's presidential or vice presidential candidate leave the ticket for whatever reason, the hole may be filled either by a reconvening of the national convention or by the party committee itself. The vice presidential nominee is not given any preferential consideration.

Should the committee elect to fill the vacancy — a seemingly more likely scenario given the logistics involved in organizing a second convention — Republican National Committee members representing a given state are entitled to cast the same number of votes as that state was entitled to at the convention. If the RNC members from any state are not in agreement about casting of their votes, the votes of that state are divided equally among members of the RNC voting.

The final stipulation of the rule is that no candidate may be chosen to fill a vacancy except by receiving a majority of the votes entitled to be cast in the RNC election.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/03/what-happens-if-a-candidate-say-donald-trump-drops-out-of-the-presidential-race.html

[tawadi]

2. Thanks

I can see that happening.

[kstewart33]

3. Three weeks.

If he hangs in for 3 more weeks, by then it is impossible to get his name on the ballot in every state because several states will have printed the ballots.

What happens if he quits? I'd bet that the RNC leadership have some ideas, but it seems unlikely that Trump would quit. However, the RNC may have ordered states to delay the printing.

What's more humiliating - quitting or losing?

[tawadi]

4. Trumps tantrums are escalating

He might just storm out of a debate or rally and quit. He acts like an irrational child.

[DFW]

5. There are filing deadlines in every state.

If that deadline passes (and we are nearing it everywhere), then the RNC can nominate God if they want to, but it's too late to file him in as a canidate. Theoretically, Trump's name remains on the ballot, even if everyone knows he's no longer a candidate.

[Ms. Yertle]

6. 2002 Senate election

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lautenberg#2002_election

Almost immediately, the New Jersey Republican Party challenged the replacing of Torricelli with Lautenberg, citing that the timing was too close to the election, and, per New Jersey law, the change could not be allowed. The ballot name change was unanimously upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court,[19] who cited that the law did not provide for a situation like Torricelli's, and said that leaving Torricelli on the ballot would be an unfair advantage for Forrester.[17] The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case. Lautenberg defeated Forrester in the general election, 54% to 44%, and took office for his fourth term in January 2003.

I don't know if this is relevant. It seems to me that part of the justification was that not putting Lautenberg's name on the ballot would deny the people of NJ a choice.

I have a feeling that the states would be forced to reprint ballots so that the people would have a choice of presidential candidates. I'm okay with that. Not doing so would seem to be undemocratic.

[MineralMan]

7. We win. If he doesn't, we win.

Whatever Trump does, we win.