Candidates

Guess I'll just have to display some ignorance here, Walter. Election of the dead, and defunct votors, for that matter, sound like illegal manipulation more than election law.


Widow gets the office? Again, it sounds illegal to me. Most offices have specific filing dates, after which, further candidates cannot enter the contest. There may be state rules permitting the state governor to appoint someone to office, but the timing would have to be just right.

New Jersey seems to be an exception to the tradition of following the law regarding filing times, but it's their law so I guess they can break it if they want.

Just a quick reply, roger, before being away: I think, it was in Missouri, where this happened two years ago (maybe that I'm wrong, but actually I've no time to look it up now).

You're thinking of Mel Carnahan, whose wife, Jean, got the seat.

"Carnahan served as Missouri's First Lady for nearly eight years. Just three weeks before the November 2000 election, her husband, Governor Mel Carnahan - while campaigning for the United States Senate - was killed in a tragic plane crash along with their oldest son, Randy, and long-time advisor Chris Sifford.

"With her husband's name still on the ballot, she agreed to serve in his place should he be elected, which he was with a 48,000-vote margin of victory.

"Jean Carnahan was sworn into to the Senate on January 3, 2001, becoming the first woman in Missouri history to serve in the Senate."

http://carnahan.senate.gov/Bio.html

Note that when people were voting for Mel, they knew they were really voting for Jean.

Different states have different laws. My understanding with Minnesota law is that they could do that (leave Wellstone's name on the ballot), and then Gov. Jesse (The Body) Ventura could appoint whomever he chose to serve Wellstone's term. (I saw differing things on that, though -- may be that in Minnesota his name _can't_ be on the ballot since he died.) It looks like they are going for supplemental ballots and Walter Mondale as the candidate.

And Walter, very sorry to learn of your mother's illness -- I hope she makes a full recovery soon.

More:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/3392864.html

(A quick aside -- when I got to the bottom of that article, I realized it was written by the father of one of my school [K-12] friends. That kind of thing keeps happening with this whole story.)

The quick and dirty answer is that the states have laws for the design and drafting of election ballots. To ensure that all candidates are properly listed on those ballots each state has a"cut off" point where the ballots can't be changed (so that they can get them printed/distributed so that everyone is using the same ballot.).

If someone dies after that cut-off date their name remains on the ballot. In most state's the govenror then appoints someone to fufill the duties of the deceased if they should win. This is exactly what happened in the Carnahan case mentioned above.

Thanks for the replies!

And a special "thank you" for your kind wishes, soz! (WE need them, too!)

Be careful, Walter.

There is a little known rule that if you learn to much about US election law, you are required to run!

I don't fear that at all, max!

(How did you guess that I'm working on that? :wink: )

I know lots of candidates that should run - if you get my drift.

Name recognition is the hardest and most important thing to obtain for a candidate. The election of the dead also happened in Hawaii this year for a Congressional seat. It all depends on the laws of the state - that is the reason they needed someone to run for Wellstone in Minnesota. They got someone with proven name identity. When the "dead" are running, there campaigns have to inform the voters of the consequences, ie, there will be another election soon and then they will vote for a new candidate. The person running against the "dead" has it difficult, they must remember that that person is dead and can not do negative advertising. In most cases, they will run against the person who the Governor will nominate in the stead.

Maybe we should have more dead people running for office - no negative campaigning. I can go for that!

Also, if you get elected while your dead, then I guess you get name reconition when you get where your going.

Actually, I wanted to take the oldest post in my list and send a reply. I guess you could say I'm voting for a dead issue!

Nevertheless, Bill, thanks for your condolences

Hawaii had the same thing happen with the passing of Pasty Mink, her husband took the position with the governors blessing until the end of her term. While I never wished for Pasty to die, I never cared for any of her policy issues.

WALTER
ONE PARTY HAD PICKED UP AN OLD DIE HARD PATRIOT.
The other one a diluted party make much ado about nothing.
.
The consumers- I repeat consumers- are spellboud and speechless.
Do you wish to uphold this kind of nonocracy in the name of DEMOCRACY?
count me out please.