[desertsolitaire]

Is there some rule or mechanism in place that dictates a suspension/cancellation of elections if a war is going on that the US is involved in? Were the 1864 national (including Presidential) even delayed due to the US War of the Northern Aggression going on at the time? I realize from history that they weren’t entirely cancelled, but I wonder if there was talk of doing so then and how seriously it might be entertained today?

[Publius]

Is there some rule or mechanism in place that dictates a suspension/cancellation of elections if a war is going on that the US is involved in?

No. The only way to do that is to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution.

Were the 1864 national (including Presidential) even delayed due to the US War of the Northern Aggression going on at the time?

No.

I realize from history that they weren’t entirely cancelled, but I wonder if there was talk of doing so then and how seriously it might be entertained today?

In 1968 after the violence at the Democrat Convention in Chicago, Lyndon Johnson faced the possibility that the antiwar youth and Black Panthers might join forces, and the 1968 election might be held under conditions of terrorism or even urban guerilla warfare. He asked the NSC to war-game scenarios wherein the election could be delayed until domestic tranquility was restored. The NSC gave LBJ a menu of options, and Johnson chose the one where he would declare martial law and set the Constitution aside. Fortunately, the Panthers saw the antiwar youth as amateurs and had nothing to do with them. We dodged that bullet.

This became public after Nixon's resignation when the press ran stories on the "White House horrors." It was a two-day story.

[SJackson]

Election day is set by the states, the date the electoral college meets is set by Congress, and Congress can override the states as to the date of elections for federal office, thus a single election day since the mid 19th century. Congress could change the election date but the terms of elected Federal officials end, per the Constitution, at the end of their term. So though you could put off the election I suppose, you’d have no one running the Executive Branch and Congress as their terms expire so the Constitution would then be in the trash.