[Alberta's Child]

The problem with a "Torricelli" scenario is that the entire Democratic Party would come off looking just as mentally unstable as Kerry is.

As far as selecting a "successor," I'm not sure how that would happen. A lot of this depends on deadlines in individual states to get candidates on ballots. Most of these deadlines come up in September, if I remember correctly -- so a last-minute change like they did in New Jersey isn't really an option.

[cibco]

"As far as selecting a "successor," I'm not sure how that would happen. A lot of this depends on deadlines in individual states to get candidates on ballots."

IIRC during the summer of 2000 someone on FR came up with Hillary being registered as a presidential candidate. They posted the Fed site showing it. I don't know what effect that would have on state ballots. It would be interesting to know.

[RagingBull]

In a presidential election, voters vote for electors, not for the actual candidate. In the 1960 election, JFK's name wasn't on the Alabama ballot -- the choice was Nixon or unpledged democratic electors. 5 of them voted for Kennedy, but 6 voted for Dixiecrat Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia.

It would be a weird situation for one of the major candidates to drop out or croak so late in the game, but presumably the electors could vote for a replacement candidate.