This week, a state lawmaker in Pennsylvania who died last month won his reelection campaign in a landslide.
The lawmaker, Tony DeLuca, is a Democrat who served in the state legislature in Pennsylvania for 39 years. On Election Day, DeLuca won more than 85 percent of the vote in his district, which is historically Democrat, according to the New York Post.
However, DeLuca reportedly passed away of lymphoma on Oct. 9 at age 85. When he passed, election officials reportedly said that it was too late to change the ballots.
In response to DeLuca’s win, the Pennsylvania House Democrats thanked voters for electing him posthumously and said that a special election will take place soon to fill the seat.
While we're incredibly saddened by the loss of Representative Tony DeLuca, we are proud to see the voters to continue to show their confidence in him and his commitment to Democratic values by re-electing him posthumously. A special election will follow soon. pic.twitter.com/CfLnSCuvK9
— PA House Dems (@PAHDCC) November 9, 2022
Charlie Wolfson, a reporter for Public Source PA, said on Twitter that some of the voters in DeLuca’s district were “oblivious,” but added that most of the constituents elected him instead of electing a third-party candidate.
Some folks commenting that the voters here were oblivious. Some certainly were. But for others, they likely preferred the idea of a special election over electing the third-party candidate on the ballot
— Charlie Wolfson (@chwolfson) November 9, 2022
Fox 43 reported that Pennsylvania state law states that substitutes for candidates who have passed away cannot be submitted after ballots have started printing. In this case, the ballots in Allegheny County began printing on Sept. 28, and DeLuca’s death occurred a week and a half later.
Annie Downs, a county spokesperson, told the Associated Press in an email that this is not the first time this has occurred.
“The state has an election calendar that outlines dates for withdrawals, substitutions, etc. and all of those dates had passed when the Representative died,” Downs wrote in an email. “This is not the first time this has happened either.”
Trevor Southerland, the executive director of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee, told AP that under state law, there was “no way” to remove DeLuca from the ballot.