Reply #27: Well [View All]

I suppose that Sen. Johnson COULD linger for the year or more it would take for impeachment hearings to occur, impeachment to occur, the trial in the Senate to occur, and then die the day before the vote occurs, but that seems pretty unlikely - all of it.

And the SD Secretary of State doesn't appoint the replacement, so I'm not sure what any announcement on his part would mean. And the Governor would never announce a "contingent" replacement for a currently-serving Senator. However, the replacement could be announced an hour after the Senator's death and then sworn in immediately, still removing any possible "gap".

But it's just an intellectual exercise - there likely won't be any impeachment at all, and if there were, the Senate is very unlikely to convict, so while it's possible to imagine some scenario under which one vote would matter, the likelihood of it happening are so minuscule, it's hardly worth considering.