I thought you couldn’t have the President and VP reside in the same state. What is the purpose of having Rubio and DeSantis mentioned as potential VP. Would they actually move out of Florida? (a la Dick Cheyney)
How much time has Trump actually primarily lived in FL over the last couple of months. It's my understanding that Trump has either been in NY or NJ. And he could continue to do that thru November.
Trum can “move” to NJ with a few signatures.
"I thought you couldn’t have the President and VP reside in the same state."
Not that the states comply with constitutionally enumerated rules for electing a president anymore, but these rules require a given state's constitutionally qualified electoral voters to vote for a POTUS or VP who resides outside their respective state.
"Article II, Section 1, Clause 2: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
Excerpted from 12th Amendment (12A):
"The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves [emphasis added]; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice- President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; ..."
The Constitution says that electors of a state where the candidates are from can NOT vote for the Prez & VPrez of that state as a bundle. They can vote for the Prez but not the VPrez or the VPrez but not the Prez. Because of the quasi-constitutional way** we now do the presidential elections we mentally conflate Prez & VPrez into one vote i.e. one office. They are two offices and the electors vote for them separately. For example if Trump runs using his Florida address and a Florida based VP is his running mate. The Florida electors could vote for Trump but not his Florida based VP or they could vote for the VP but not Trump. Trump can get around it by using his New York address. I even think he has New Jersy property.
If a Fla Veep is his choice, I hope he has war gamed it out, so he meets the residency requirements of whichever state he chooses for residency. If he doesn’t treat it seriously the Rats will discover a love of the Constitution and pounce to deny or diminish his electoral vote count for him (Number 1 target!) or his VP. They’ll pounce anyway so it must be ironclad! He must be prepared! This is not something to be flippant about.
** The Founding Fathers never intended a popular vote for president. The Prez\VPrez would be selected indirectly by the state legislators through the legislature appointed electors. After watching years of extravaganza fantasmogorcal whoop & holler 3 ring circus presidential all-entertainment-all-the-time more-money-spent-then-the-budget-of-a-small-country presidential elections. It’s clear the Founding Fathers were right and the mess we call doing presidential elections is wrong.