Deborah Barfield Berry

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – With Election Day only weeks away and with some votes already cast, it’s nearly impossible for Republicans to oust Donald Trump and replace him on the ballot, political experts said Saturday.

“At this point, a vacancy would very likely forfeit the presidency irrevocably,’’ said James Bopp, a former Republican National Committee vice chairman. “I think this is gross speculation … I don’t see any prospect of Trump stepping down and there’s no authority to remove him.’

“It would be politically suicidal for the Republican Party to do that anyway,’’ Bopp said.

Trump has come under fire for sexually aggressive comments he made about women on a leaked video tape. Trump apologized for his 2005 comments but has said he doesn't plan to step down.

"I've never said I'm a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone I'm not," Trump said in a video statement. "I've said and done things I regret, and the words released (Friday) on this more than a decade-old video are one of them."

Late Saturday afternoon he tweeted: “The media and establishment want me out of the race so badly - I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN!’’

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Other than pressure from others, including high-profile Republicans, political experts say there is little the national party can do to force Trump to step down.

“I’m sure the temptation was there a long time ago,’’ said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. “But it’s much too late. They’re stuck with him.’’

If Republicans were to have tried to replace Trump, it probably should have been by Labor Day at the latest, Baker said.

Even then, Baker said, it would probably have caused “an irreparable rupture in the Republican Party. It would have been a civil war.’’

Bopp said Trump can’t be forced to quit.

“There has been some erroneous stories that the RNC has the power to remove a presidential candidate and they do not. They have no such power,’’ said Bopp, a well-known conservative lawyer based in Indiana. “If a vacancy occurred for whatever reason, which obviously could include resignation, then the RNC does have the power to fill the vacancy.’’

According to the RNC rules, the committee is “authorized and empowered to fill any and all vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise of the Republican candidate for President of the United States ... as nominated by the national convention, or the Republican National Committee may reconvene the national convention for the purpose of filling any such vacancies.’’

Baker said the issue has more to do with state's ballot deadlines. “As each day goes by the filing date passes for one more state,’’ he said.

Bopp said one issue would be whether a replacement can get on the ballot in 50 states and in Washington, D.C. Laws vary from state to state. “In most states, it’s probably too late,’’ he said.

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Another issue, said Bopp, is what happens to the ballots that have already been cast. Early voting is already underway in some states.

“How are those votes to be counted and that is again a state by state issue,’’ he said.

Bopp said in some states the ballot would be counted for the replacement, but in others they wouldn’t be counted at all and be considered “spoiled.’’

“A vacancy at this point would mean a lot of lost votes,’’ he said.

Thirty seven states, plus Washington, D.C., offer some form of early voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some begin 45 days before Election Day. Many states also allow mail-in absentee ballots.

With a decentralized voting system, laws vary from state to state, said Albert Samuels, interim dean of the Nelson Mandela College of Government and Social Sciences at Southern University in Louisiana.

“It may be difficult even if they wanted to, to get him off the ballot … and replace him with someone else,’’ he said. “There are some practical difficulties that they may have to confront.’’

If Trump withdraws, the RNC would have to agree on a replacement and then tell voters to ignore the name on the ballot, said Derek Muller, an election law expert at Pepperdine University School of Law.

If the Trump campaign gets more electoral college votes than Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the electors in each state could then cast their votes not for Trump, but for the chosen replacement.

Some states require the electors to vote for the person on the ballot who won the most votes. But Muller said there are few enforcement mechanisms and it’s unlikely secretaries of state would force electors to be bound by a candidate who has dropped out.

“The biggest barrier is getting Trump to drop out,” he said.

Baker said Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, would have had to have called state party chairs together weeks ago to push that effort.

“There was a time when national party chairs were very strong… where a party chair could just step in and say, ‘This guy is no good, He’s going to lose it for us. Let’s get him off and replace him,'' Baker said. "But Reince Priebus is a party bureaucrat. He really doesn’t have the power to do that much.’’

Beyond ballot issues, some experts say it may be hard for Trump to recover and for the party do damage control.

“There’s no rule book for this one,’’ Samuels said. “Candidates have done embarrassing things in the past … but to have the video and the audio and now with the internet and with social media – the ability to disseminate this and (voters) to see it over and over and over again – that’s what’s different.’’

But Bopp said Trump should keep the focus on Democratic presidential nominee Clinton.

“He’s already apologized,’’ he said. “I think Hillary Clinton’s actions are much more important than Donald Trump’s words 11 years ago. He’s going to proceed to win the election.’’

Samuels, however, rules out a win for Trump, saying “there’s no way around this.’’

Experts said Republicans are also worried about the impact Trump will have on other GOP candidates on the ballot, particularly those running for the Senate and the House.

“Republicans are just hoping they can contain the damage,’’ Samuels said. “They’re afraid it will have a demobilizing effect – that you see people who just can’t bring themselves to vote for this guy. Republicans are going to have to convince those people to come out’’ and vote for other GOP candidates.

Contributing: David Jackson and Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY

Contact Deborah Barfield Berry at dberry@gannett.com. Twitter: @dberrygannett