The use of the word “otherwise” has led some people to suggest that the party has some leeway for ridding itself of Mr. Trump. However, election law experts do not agree.

The issue came up before the Republican National Convention when critics of Mr. Trump mused about ways to keep him from winning the nomination. Josh Putnam, a political science lecturer at the University of Georgia, addressed the idea on his blog, FrontloadingHQ, in August and deemed it a nonstarter.

“The intention there was to allow the party latitude to replace someone who was incapacitated, neither dead nor dropped out of the race,” Mr. Putnam said. “It’s not about what to do if someone made some controversial comments on a tape 11 years ago and we want to replace them now.”

Mr. Putnam concluded that Mr. Trump’s dropping out of the race was the most probable scenario for getting him off the ticket absent a health calamity.