# I, for one, welcome our new Zombie Mayor **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 29, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814 "2020-09-29T13:35:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/1 "2020-09-29T13:35:26Z")
> [@](#): > > **Romanian village re-elects dead mayor, saying he deserved to win** > > [Romanian](https://cnn.com/videos/sports/2020/04/23/simona-halep-home-lockdown-romania-workouts-tennis-wimbledon-spt-intl-lon-orig.cnn) villagers have re-elected their mayor by a landslide even though he [died](https://cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/dennis-hof-brothel-nevada-state-assembly/index.html) two weeks ago from Covid-19 complications, saying he had done a good job and deserved his posthumous victory. > > A video shared on social media showed dozens of villagers visiting the grave of Ion Aliman, a Social Democrat, to light candles after voting had ended in Sunday’s local elections. > > “It is your victory,” one man can be heard saying. “Know that you will be proud of us. Rest in peace.” > > Aliman won his third term as mayor of Deveselu, a village of around 3,000 people in southern Romania, with 64% of the vote, electoral bureau data showed on Monday. > > “He was a real mayor to us,” one unnamed woman who wore a surgical mask told private television station ProTV in Deveselu. “He took the side of the village, respected all the laws. I don’t think we will see a mayor like him again.” > > Aliman, a former navy officer who would have turned 57 on Monday, died on September 17 in a hospital in Bucharest. His name was already on the printed voting ballots and could not be removed, officials said. A new election will be held. > > In 2008, a village in eastern Romania also knowingly re-elected their mayor who had died just after voting began. [https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/europe/romania-mayor-dead-elected-intl/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/europe/romania-mayor-dead-elected-intl/index.html) This puts a new spin on the current thread about whether or not incumbents have an edge in elections. Apparently, it can be hard to unseat an incumbent even if he’s not actually alive. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/2 "2020-09-29T14:32:29Z")
His salary demands are also quite reasonable, and you can be pretty sure he won’t have any sex scandals. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/3 "2020-09-29T14:35:24Z")
🤷‍♂️ Years ago, our town supervisor died a couple of weeks before the election. He was reelected anyway. The other candidate’s, “Vote for me, I’m alive!” argument didn’t convince anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/4 "2020-09-29T14:36:02Z")
So … who takes over? Maybe they’ll need another election. Oh, you can only call him a zombie if he shows up to be sworn in. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/5 "2020-09-29T14:53:38Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > His salary demands are also quite reasonable, and you can be pretty sure he won’t have any sex scandals. Oh, I sincerely hope that’s the case. But I wouldn’t count on it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/6 "2020-09-29T14:56:33Z")
Name me one other case of Romanian necrophilia. Ok, ok, other than Dracula… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/7 "2020-09-29T16:35:48Z")
Was Edgar Allen Poe Romanian? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/8 "2020-09-29T18:41:20Z")
If it is just an honorary title, this is a touching story. If on the other hand being mayor is a full time job, then this is just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-zombie-mayor/921814/9 "2020-09-29T20:25:28Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > So … who takes over? Maybe they’ll need another election. The report does say there will be a new election. It’s rare but not unheard of to have a candidate who dies or is missing-and-presumed-dead too late to be replaced on the ballot and still prevails. [Even in the US Congress](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/01/five-people-have-won-election-to-congress-despite-being-dead/). You can then have a case like this one where the voters in effect say to the still-live candidate: hey, sorry, man, I wasn’t going to vote for _you_ no matter what. The victory of the dead candidate is treated as if he had died between election and inauguration and either there’s a special election or whatever the legal succession procedure kicks in.