Legal alert: Our country is praying for the President and his family. I am getting a lot of hypothetical questions about what happens if a Republican president dies right before Election Day and still wins a majority of the electoral college votes.

First, the RNC under Rule 9 "is hereby authorized and empowered to fill any and all vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise." The RNC members cast the number of votes per their delegation at the convention. https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/media/documents/2016-Republican-Rules-Reformatted2018_1533138132.pdf?_ga=2.12320884.1723154298.1601677132-1932229142.1601677132

Note: this could be different with a Democratic nominee or President. I don't know the DNC's rules.

In our scenario, the ballots have already been printed and thousands of ballots have already been voted. Whether ballots can or would be reprinted is up to individual state law. Let's assume they aren't reprinted and the current candidate stays on the ballot.

The 12th Amendment says "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" but in this scenario the candidate with the most votes is dead and therefore no longer a person.

So then 12A says, "if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President" by state delegation.

Now--because of the Supreme Court's case from last term on faithless electors--we will have some states that could mandate their electors vote for the winner (in this case, the dead candidate) and others will be free to write in the RNC's new candidate.

In that case, the 3 candidates with the most votes would be the dead candidate, the Democratic nominee, and the RNC's new candidate. And the state delegations in the CURRENT House would be 26 Republicans, 23 Democrats, and 1 tie.

But is it state delegations of the current House or the new House sworn in Jan 3? 12A says it goes to the House “whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them” before inauguration day--so it depends on when and how it all plays out with the Electoral College.

Punchline: This would wind up in state courts AND federal court several times over. It would not be good. Do not wish for this timeline for our country.