This piece of news from NPR:

"Voters in Oceanside, California, have chosen a dead man over a woman, re-electing Gary Ernst as city treasurer despite the fact that Ernst died in September. A prominent city councilman had urged voters to elect Ernst rather than challenger Nadine Scott, promising to appoint a replacement for Ernst."

Be clear that the candidate died between the time ballots were printed (and absentee ballots were mailed) and the day of election.

It still makes you wonder how many people knew he was dead and demonstrates the power of being an incumbent.

I once read about a local Peruvian election campaign during which a soap company ran "Vote For Pulvapes" ads, and, as you might have guessed, Pulvapes won the election.

The article (probably in the NY Times) didn't mention that it was a protest vote.

And I'm sure a lot of people were glad of the promise to appoint a replacement ….otherwise council meetings might have been somewhat uncomfortable.

Well sure. They put their best foot forward. Groan

I vividly recall Mel Carnahan’s posthumous victory in the 2000 Senate race in Missouri. Carnahan, killed in a plane crash during his campaign 3 weeks before the elections, won handily from incumbent John Ashcroft, who went on to become Attorney General in the Bush administration. Carnahan’s wife Jean was appointed to Mel’s Senate seat. In this case it was quite clear that the electorate knew their candidate would not be filling his seat, but they chose to make a point regardless: even dead Carnahan could beat Ashcroft…