(NewsGlobal.com)- A few weeks before election day, Dan Smith, a Republican running for city attorney in the Chula Vista neighborhood of San Diego, demanded that the San Diego County Democratic Party stop endorsing and urging voters to support Simon Silva.
Smith had excellent justification for objecting. Silva had been deceased for over a month.
If chosen, the city would have to call a special election to replace him, which, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune, would be very expensive.
In a letter to the local party, Smith stated that “misinformation by continuing this deception on the voters of Chula Vista is potentially triggering the expenditure of millions of dollars, which is a significant amount of taxpayer funds.”
It seems that Smith’s cries remained unanswered. In a fiercely contested election year in the city, Smith was trailing the deceased Silva by 149 votes as of November 12.
Although Silva’s apparent success was surprising, it was not unusual in this cycle. In Tennessee, the late state representative for the Memphis area, Barbara Cooper, defeated independent Michael Porter on Tuesday night to retain her seat in the Tennessee Statehouse. Barbara Cooper passed away about two weeks before election day.
In the meantime, Tony DeLuca, a longstanding state representative from Harrisburg, was reelected to his position in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night even though the Pittsburgh Democrat passed away from lymphoma one month prior.
Even though their mayor passed away just before the election, the people of Palmhurst, Texas, decided to maintain him as mayor earlier this year.
Roy Edwards, a Wyoming state senator running unopposed for the office in 2020, passed away the day before the election, making him the winner and forcing Wyoming to call a special election to fill his seat. In neighboring North Dakota, candidate David Andahl, who ultimately won the election, also passed away before taking office.
Jenny Oropeza, a state legislator for California, passed away less than two weeks before an election in which she was anticipated to win reelection—which she eventually did comfortably.
Many believe our current President was braindead before he ran for office, and he purportedly had the most votes cast for him in American history.
