Wednesday's insider trading indictment against New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins may cast uncertainty on his reelection bid, but it seems like Republicans have few options of forcing him off of the ballot. 

Collins is running in a heavily-Republican district, which could protect him from retribution at the ballot box. But even if the GOP wanted to cut and run, there's little the party can do to force him out. 

There's nothing in state law that could kick Collins off the ballot unless he agreed to step aside, even if he's convicted before November's election. 

And there are only three ways to be removed from the ballot — death, disqualification and declination. 

Disqualification only counts for things like residency and age requirements, not criminal charges or convictions. And declination, the candidate declining to run, faces a handful of deadlines which have mostly already passed. 

The one loophole is if the party can find another public office for him to be nominated for, he could accept that nomination and step down as the party's congressional nominee. But that's extremely unlikely, both because most filing deadlines are passed and Collins would have to agree to step down in favor of that lesser position. 

If that long-shot scenario were to play out — the GOP finding a spot on the ballot for Collins and the congressman agreeing to step aside — the state party would have the power to nominate a replacement. 

The bottom line is that while it's theoretically possible for Collins to be removed from the ballot, it would require convincing Collins to step aside and finding some local landing spot where the filing deadline hasn't passed.