A Dead woman was elected

Jerauld county auditor Cindy Peterson said that the election list closed on August 1, and while Steichen died from cancer in September her name was kept on the list for Tuesday's election.

Link

Anybody else see what is wrong with this picture ?
What happens now ?
If questions arent being asked about Diebold machines dead people are being elected.

Steichen beat a Republican rival by 100 votes to 64 and Peterson said she believed that voters knew the woman was dead but wanted to make their political point.

Political fraud? Unlikely. It is more likely that her rival was such a waste of space, people would rather vote in a dead person.

The same thing happened with John Ashcroft when he was running for an office beofre he was appointed to Bush's cabinet: His dead rival recieved far more votes because Asscroft was that vile, supporting things like segregation.

It is likely the voters were more aware of the deceseased's current status, but wanted to make a point that a dead candidate was far superior to the living one.

I can acepted that Voters thought that the dead candidate was better then the living rival.
But isnt there something wrong with a system that allows dead people to be elected ?
Wont there have to be a bi election have to be held to elect a living person ?

Originally posted by xpert11
What happens now ?

It depends on the state, the governor could get to appoint someone, or the county executive

If questions arent being asked about Diebold machines dead people are being elected.

What does this have to do with diebold? Are you saying that some group hacked the machines and used them to.....give votes to a dead person? Why wouldn't they just use them to give votes to the person that they want to be in that office?

But isnt there something wrong with a system that allows dead people to be elected ?

This isn't an example of the system being manipulated, its an example of people creating rules to regulate the system, not being able to anticipate every outcome, and having a bizzare result because of that. If they were wantonly manipulating the system, they'd just break the rules and strike her name from the ballot and replace it with someone else.

skadi_the_evil_elf
It is more likely that her rival was such a waste of space, people would rather vote in a dead person.

Or, that most people are idiots who didn't even know that she was dead. I wouldn't rule anything out these days.
What probably happened is that people there knew that, if, say, she was elected, then the governor, or whoever, would put in some other specific person, so when they voted for her, they understood that it was a vote for that other specific person, who they prefered to the other candidate.

Nygdan mayabe I wasnt very clear when I first posted on this thread. My point is that a dead person being elected is another irregularite to go along with the ones concerning the Diebold machine. I would have thought that a death of a candidate would have been covered by the regulations .

To be fair I guess the almost reasonable assumation was made that no one would vote for a dead person.