Dead Ringer: Deceased Candidate Wins Election With Voters in Dark
By E&P Staff
Published: November 10, 2006 10:15 AM ET updated 1:30 PM
NEW YORK Things were so bad for Republicans this week in the midterm elections they couldn't even beat a dead man in North Carolina.
A candidate for a county board there, who was still appearing in newspaper ads the weekend before the Nov. 7 election, earned an easy victory, gaining 12,000 votes — despite being dead for a month.
Union County elections officials knew about his death for weeks, but did not inform voters, even though the newspaper ads and endorsements continued.
"We are instructed that it's not our job to do that," said Shirley Secrest, elections director.
The late Sam Duncan was the top vote-getter Tuesday for two seats as supervisor on Union County's Soil and Water Conservation board. He was running for re-election as his four-year term expired.
The Democratic Party distributed literature and sample ballots backing Duncan near the polls on election day. Democratic Party officials said they didn't know Duncan had died when they placed the ads and printed the literature, but did not know later.
Former sheriff Frank McGuirt said he had helped Duncan gain enough votes to knock out a board chairman who had served for many years. "I was shocked to know that poor Sam was gone," McGuirt told the Charlotte Observer. "I guess I had just missed that obituary." A check by E&P for such an obituary also came up empty, at least on a quick search.
An appointment will now fill Duncan's seat.
Meanwhile, in Texas, a Republican, Rep. Glenda Dawson, was re-elected
despite her death in September. In this case, her passing was no secret, but her campaign was criticized for sending out campaign mailers just before the election touting her record -- but not mentioning that she had died.
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