Man elected to county board seat despite being dead for a month

Monroe - A candidate for a county board who appeared in newspaper ads the weekend before the election sailed to victory with 12,000 votes — despite being dead for a month.

Sam Duncan was the top vote-getter Tuesday for two seats on Union County's Soil and Water Conservation board.

Although county elections officials knew of Duncan's death, no one told the voters.

"We are instructed that it's not our job to do that," said Shirley Secrest, elections director.

The Democratic Party ran newspaper endorsement ads about Duncan and literature distributed near the polls included his name. Party officials said they didn't know Duncan had died.

Former sheriff Frank McGuirt said he was one of the voters who helped Duncan edge out the sitting chairman who had served for about a dozen years.

"I was shocked to know that poor Sam was gone," McGuirt said. "I guess I had just missed that obituary."

Duncan's seat will be filled by appointment, officials said. -- The Associated Press

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