The President-Elect will have chosen his nominee well before inauguration on January 20. He would submit it within a few days to the already sworn in ( two weeks earlier ) Senate.
If the Senate has their act together the choice will leave committee and get a full up/down vote by February, a month or two shy of any record.
And who cares anyway? Records were made to be broken, and if the survival of the republic isn't a good enough reason to do this, then what is? All lame-duck President appointees by definition will have a year long delay if the (D)ummies own historical words, plans and deeds are to be believed. This is not news.
I remind you again what the (D)ummies did to Reagan mid-2nd term with Bork, and what they later attempted with Bush41 and Thomas. This is war, you just haven't come to grips with that fact yet.
We would all do well to learn about the extraordinary measures that VP Jefferson undertook to recalibrate the trajectory that FedGov was on by 1797. He all but declared war on President Adams and the mischievous Alexander Hamilton while he was Vice-President. This somewhat unknown 2nd American Revolution ended when he was sworn in on March 4, 1801 and Adams slinked out of town a loser and the (F) party was all but destroyed in the process.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, but you know what? Depriving a lame-duck President a final Supreme Court pick is not very extraordinary at all. They should be doing the same even if it had been Ginsberg or Breyer who dropped dead. The fact that it was Scalia simply makes it imperative. Defeat is NOT an option.
"Below are the top ten longest vacancies on the court, based on the beginning and end dates for each justice's term listed on the Supreme Court's website."
days span began with ended with 391 May 14, 1969 - Jun 9, 1970 Abe Fortas resigns. Harry A. Blackmun begins term. 301 May 7, 1873 - Mar 4, 1874 Salmon Portland Chase dies. Morrison Remick Waite begins term. 290 Mar 22, 1889 - Jan 6, 1890 Stanley Matthews dies. David Josiah Brewer begins term. 281 Mar 28, 1910 - Jan 3, 1911 David Josiah Brewer dies. Willis Van Devanter begins term. 281 Mar 4, 1877 - Dec 10, 1877 David Davis resigns. John Marshall Harlan begins term. 262 Jan 22, 1892 - Oct 10, 1892 Joseph P. Bradley dies. George Shiras, Jr. begins term. 249 May 14, 1887 - Jan 18, 1888 William Burnham Woods dies. Lucius Quintus C. Lamar begins term. 248 Jul 7, 1893 - Mar 12, 1894 Samuel Blatchford dies. Edward Douglass White begins term. 237 Jun 26, 1987 - Feb 18, 1988 Lewis F. Powell, Jr. retires. Anthony M. Kennedy begins term. 205 Jul 9, 1938 - Jan 30, 1939 Benjamin Nathan Cardozo dies. Felix Frankfurter begins term.