Fahrenheit 9/11 is on the telly here. We've just got to the part where John Ashcroft got given a job after losing an election to a man who'd died a month before the election. My point (thank God) is, isn't there some mechanism in American politics whereby an election can be postponed if a candidate dies a full *30 days* previously? I mean, it's not like you wouldn't notice, what with the smelling and the decomposition and such like. Is there no-one prepared to say "Umm, hang on a minute. This one's a stiff. Couldn't we put it off until they find a live one?"

For Senators, the Governor of the State can delay the election in *extreme* circumstances and allow the current Senator to continue to serve. IIRC, the Governor allowed the candidate's wife to serve in his place until a special election could be fit into the next cycle.


Senators used to be appointed by Governors, not elected.

I just don't understand this. Election cycles? Extreme cirumstances? The bloke *died* *a whole month* before the election. Why on earth is letting his wife do the job a sensible solution? That's equivalent to picking a random person off the street and giving them the job. Try to look at this from a fresh perspective. Forget legalese justifications and ask yourself "Under what circumstances does it make any sense to have an election when one of the two candidates is a rotting corpse?"

Andy, America is a weird place. I still can't get over the fact that it often takes days or weeks after an election is over for them to finish counting the votes and declare the result.

Who said it made sense?

I was just explaining the way it works.

Andy, I believe the ballots etc... were all printed up already, but the dead man was officially no longer part of the race. But the governor made it clear that if the dead guy won, he would appoint the wife. I agree it's a little weird, I can only assume the laws are the way they are so that one doesn't try to assasinate a losing candidate to delay an election and put a better one in there.