Dead man elected in Washington state

Criminal charges won't stop you from getting elected in America, and apparently neither will death: State Rep. Roger Freeman of the 30th District in Washington handily won his re-election on Tuesday — but he won't take office again because he died in October.

At the time of his death, about 15 percent of the district's voters had already mailed in their ballots. And by the time Election Day came around, many voters were not aware that Freeman had died, and apparently voted for the incumbent or along party lines anyway.

Freeman is not the first official to be elected posthumously. In 2010, Missouri voters accidentally elected a man who had likewise died in October, while in 1998 a woman won a runoff election in late August after dying in mid-July. And in 2013, an Oregon man was elected to his city council five months after his death, though in that case the victory was an intentional gesture of respect rather than the result of misinformation.

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