Has started. The President voted today.

They can only distance themselves but not remove him? Explain some if you can

transferred over to any new candidate?

There will be voters who will vote Trump even if he drops out. That vote counts as a Trump vote.

its a vote for an elector. The electors can vote for anyone they choose -- even someone not running.

Particularly if Trump has not withdrawn as a candidate and there is nothing to suggest he will. The only thing which might make it happen is if women start coming forward and saying "yes he did exactly that to me."

If he removes himself what would happen to the states where people have already voted for him?

No matter what, some 30% of the GOP electorate would be angry if he were not their choice.

What do you do with them?

rience priebus gave the riot act to anyone running for repub office if they didn't support donnie the rnc may not support them. He knows they would lose voters up and down ballot. They don't want to lose the xenophobe vote. That's why rubio and cruz buckled and endorsed dipshit. Now that Repub utah gov. herbert and repub utah rep. chaffetz have removed their endorsement it may get interesting.

Early voting has started and ballots have been (or are being) printed.

They can certainly disavow him, but they can not change the ballots. They won't disavow him because that would be a disaster for down-ballot turnout. The RNC must be writhing in pain. Suck it, Reince.

But it will cause too big of an uproar with the meth-smoking, dumb as a stump redneck inbred hicks that make up the majority of their constituents

So they may grumble, but at the end of the day they will vote Trump just for the sake of voting for the 'R' by his name

I knew I should have qualified with "not enough states to matter."

The RNC can ask, but they have no power to replace, the deadlines have passed. It would be a state by state request. At this point, if Trump dropped dead, the RNC likely would not get Pence promoted to the top of the ticket in all states and territories.

The likely scenario as you said, would not be Pence but Ted Cruz as he was 'runner up'

The ballots would remain as Trump/Pence, with Pence succeeding the deceased Trump.

The deadlines for getting on the ballot have long passed in all the states and territories. The RNC might get the reddest of states to do something, but there is no way they would get enough states to substitute Cruz in to matter. Trying to switch in Cruz would guarantee defeat by splitting the Republican vote between the dead Trump/Pence and Cruz/whoever. Not enough faithless electors even if the GOP managed to win enough electors.

He won the primary.

They would have to then reconvene another convention. However some states are already voting and others are about to start.

Their best option at this point is for Trump to voluntarily withdraw, which seems like a distinct possibility. If Trump pulls out he'll be able to keep claiming the game was "rigged" as he has all along. The alternative is the possibility of going down as the biggest loser going back as far as anyone alive can remember.

Regardless of how it happens, the way it's shaping up is even the best outcome still has the GOP swirling the drain. I think DT is going to go down in the anal of history as the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic Party.

they would remove 40% of their votes in the process.

I am afraid to imagine voter reaction to his removal. They don't want pense. They want their asshole.

At this point the GOP is shackled to a corpse.

Ballots have been printed and people are already voting. They are stuck with him.