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tazzygirl -> RE: Lets Vote for the Dead Senator (11/1/2010 9:15:43 PM)
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I adore this story...
What a go-getter Joan Chapman appeared to be.
She hustled and got the necessary number of voters to sign her petition to run as a candidate in this spring’s primary election for the post of GOP committee person in her downtown Philadelphia ward.
Unfortunately for Chapman’s nascent candidacy, her petition was challenged on two grounds. For one thing, she was a Democrat and only Republicans can run for these party positions. For another, she was dead.
Chapman died in 2002, according to state records, and Pennsylvania law is clear: You must be alive to hold a political or public office. They are picky about that. Her name was removed from the ballot.
As it turned out, Chapman was a pawn – needless to say, an unwitting pawn -- in an intra-party feud among Republicans in the city. Two groups vying for control of the local GOP organization were running slates of committee people all over the city. Her petition was filed by one of the combatants in that fight.
In Philadelphia, with a long history of machine politics, the Chapman incident amused more people than it shocked. The only twist was that this was a Republican misdeed. Usually it is the Democrats, who have ruled the city for 60 years, who make merry with the election laws.
But it does serve as a reminder that in American politics the dead have often been politically active. They have signed up to vote. They have cast ballots. They have run for office and even won.
http://www.obit-mag.com/articles/dead-man-voting
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