Dead woman gets 25 percent of vote in Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept 15 (Reuters) - A dead woman got a
quarter of the vote on Tuesday in an Oklahoma election to
choose the Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, and her
husband said she was smiling in heaven.
Jacquelyn Ledgerwood was already on the ballot for the Democratic primary election in August
when she died in July at the age of 69.
Her family could not withdraw her candidacy, and she attracted over 56,000 votes, beating two
other candidates to finish second and win a place in Tuesday's runoff election.
But her remarkable campaign, which included no public appearances by her family and no
advertising, ended in defeat.
Although she received 35,000 Democratic votes on Tuesday, that was only 25 percent of the total,
and businessman Don Carroll will face Republican Senate incumbent Don Nickles in November.
Ledgerwood's family, when told that Oklahoma law required her name to appear on the runoff
ballot, had expressed the hope she would win.
''She's very happy. I really think she's looking down with a Cheshire cat's smile on her face,''
Thomas Ledgerwood, her husband of 51 years, said early on Tuesday.
The family, bombarded by interview requests over the past month, spent the evening at home
waiting for the results and promised to release a statement on Wednesday.
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