It strikes me that we are getting closer to removing Trump as President on the grounds that he and his team colluded with a foreign power to throw the election in his favor. There is a lot of speculation as to who would then become President, mostly focusing on the line of succession — Pence, Ryan, Hatch, Tillerson, Mattis …
That is one possible outcome, perhaps the most probable, and the easiest to implement. But it begs the question, if the election was illegitimate, how can anything that followed stay in place? There is no blueprint for this situation. Some are calling for a new election. But there is an entire mechanism in place for quadrennial elections that is cumbersome and time consuming. Who decides what the rules are, when do we hold the election, what guidance do we give the parties, and who rules in the meantime?
One solution, one that I have not seen a lot of talk about, is that if the “winning” candidate is disqualified for cheating, then the candidate with the next highest number of votes in each state should be awarded its electoral votes and declared the winner. Would not the easiest and fairest solution be to disqualify Trump (upon arrest or impeachment) and declare Hillary the winner?
If Trump manages to hang on until 2020, or if Pence, Ryan, or Hatch take over, I am all for fresh leadership to take the reigns of the Democratic Party. But if the election itself is tainted, should not Hillary Clinton be our legitimately elected President?