Thecoronavirushas upended every facet of American life history . And it ’s not close to done yet . Thepandemic’sshockwaves will growl on for months . maybe years even .
But if you ’re think that the virus is enough to sway one of the bedrocks of American commonwealth — the election of a Chief Executive — well , you ’d better sweep up on theU.S. Constitution .
No manner the November election gets junk . Almost no agency it ’s delayed , either .
" We are , I believe , the only major long - black market democracy that has never prorogue an election , even during wartime , " saysRichard Pildes , a constitutional assimilator and law professor at New York University . " I would say the context that might have most dramatically raised the issue was the 1864 election that was held in the midst of the Civil War which , of course , was a war that wholly consumed the land . "
If a state of war that threatened the very existence of the body politic could n’t stop the general election , it ’s not probable that the coronavirus will , either . We have the framer of the Constitution to give thanks for that .
Why It’s So Hard to Bump an Election
Local and commonwealth - level elections have been postponed for various reasons ( the mayoral primary in New York City on 9/11 , for exemplar ) . State - level elections for presidential primaries have been detain , too ( several this yearbecause of the coronavirus ) .
But the particular date for a U.S. presidential election is fixed , by law of nature , and can only be changed by police force . That alone makes it almost insufferable to delay a interior election . Think about it : Lawmakers ca n’t agree on anything these days . So it ’s highly improbable they ’ll come together to put off the presidential election .
evenly important , the Constitution states a fast date that a sit president ’s terminus must terminate . From theCongressional Research Service :
By law , then , an election must be held on a sure date because , by law , the president has to vacate the Oval Office Jan. 20 . Unless he ( or someday she ) is return .
Still … what if something truly painful happens on the brink of an election ? Say an attack on the country , acyber - attackon voting measures or a major natural calamity ?
Well , the electioncouldbe retard — the date still would have to be change by law of nature , and again , that ’s a steep hill to climb — but the escort ca n’t be check a lot . Votes still have to be reckon , which takes clock time . elector to theElectoral Collegehave to be picked and their votes have to be registered . And the Constitution still enunciate the sitting United States President must skedaddle by Jan. 20 .
And so it is that the U.S. — even through a Civil War , domestic act of terrorism , thepandemic of 1918 , and many other tragedies — never has put over a presidential election .
A Worst-case Scenario
Still permit ’s take a worst - compositor’s case scenario . What if the land is so mess up , by the coronavirus or something else , something much bad even than the Civil War , that the election is endangered , and the land stands on the precipice of disaster ? Ca n’t the seat president declaremartial lawor apply his emergency powers to delay or call off the election ? Executive social club ? Fiat ?
" The Chief Executive does n’t have any magnate to put off the Election Day on his own , " Pildes says . " you’re able to never anticipate what kind of argumentation citizenry might settle to make when it ’s in their interestingness to make the argument . But I ’m certain that this is a no - brainer in terminal figure of any legal advice the president would get . The president would be tell , ' You do n’t have the superpower to do that . ' "
What happens if a law is reenact to delay the election — again , not easy — but it does n’t happen before the President of the United States ’s term choke ? The president ’s term , by practice of law , still ends Jan. 20 . If State ca n’t fork over a finding of fact from their Electoral College repp ( they do the actual ballot for the chairwoman ) in time , the whole messfalls into the lap of the Congress . In that scenario , the House is supposed to pick the young United States President and the Senate the VP .
Another wrinkle : If a home election is postponed beyond a certain power point , there wo n’t be a House , either . ( All Representatives , remember , have to be elect every two years . No election , no House . ) In that subject , it falls to the Senate to pick the president because the Senate is a " continuing body ; " two - third base of its member are always sit , with staggered elections only every six years . If none of that works , the selection of the president reverts to therules of successiveness : the Speaker of the House ( if there is one ) will act as President of the United States and , if not him ( or her ) , the Senate ’s President pro tempore assumes the act fishgig . This has never bechance .
How the Virus May Change This Election
Less difficult than changing the date of the election is changinghowit ’s held . That ’s not to say that holding a presidential election in the clip of coronavirus wo n’t be extremely intriguing . It will be .
Absentee ballots , mail - in ballot and changes in polling places all are in play . former voting . New way of life of show to vote . And all this in the first U.S. presidential election afterRussia interfered with the last one .
" There ’s no motion that we are in the middle of a process decent now in which state legislatures and governors are go bad to inevitably be make various alteration to the election process for this declination . The accurate changes may vary from province to country . But there ’s no question we are go to have a raft of thing take place this fall that do n’t typically come about , " Pildes say .
" We understand the fate we ’re in . We do n’t fuck on the button how sorry they ’ll be or not be … But this is a massive transformation that has to be made almost overnight , and whenever something like that materialize , it ’s almost inevitable that there are going to be some crack or bug or problem emerge . We should be doing everything now to try on to derogate those risks . But the peril are real and unavoidable when you ’re trying to metamorphose something as complicated as how mass vote . "
