Special Edition: Halloween Season and Coroner Elections

Spooky maps

Happy October 1st everyone! Its officially Halloween Season!

Yes, I am one of “those” people.

Anyone who has followed me on twitter knows I am very much a Halloween fan, and of course I must weave that into my cartography career.

This special newsletter is to lay out some Halloween-themed projects you can expect from me, as well as as some past items to look back on.

Did you know we elect Coroners??!!!!

I have to start with the one thing I am perhaps the most infamous for. My coverage of coroner elections in America. Starting in 2017, I began to focus on the fact that in many parts of America, the county Coroner is an elected position.

Not only is the post elected, often with few qualifications mandated, but it is elected on a partisan ballot. In 2021, this was the partisan makeup of the elected coroners.

I did a full deep dive for Halloween of 2021, you can read far more about this office there.

2021 Coroner Deep Dive

Last year, I stuck with the coroner tradition. However, rather than look at the whole country, I focused in on the race in Westmoreland, PA. I looked at the 2021 elections, which saw the longtime incumbent lose re-election.

The Westmoreland story served to show the effects of increasing partisanship down-ballot. The county in question has been moving more GOP with time, but Democrat Kenneth Bacha had long been able to win thanks to the family legacy in the post. In his loss, Bacha overperformed other democrats, but party ID finally doomed him despite having no scandals.

For 2023, I want to continue on that partisanship analysis and focus on Kentucky. In 2021, a vast majority of the coroner posts were still held by Democrats.

In 2022, the counties held their coroner elections along with US Senate and Congress. My 2023 article will look at what changes took place. Did Democrats lose many seats, or only a handful like last time? Did any incumbents lose, or was it retirements that led to partisan turnover? I will be looking into all of this.

I’ll also be honing in one one key race: Pike County. Yours truly spotted these signs when driving through the state last October.

That year, Pike County’s Democratic coroner was retiring, leading to an open seat. This is the heart of Coal Country, and is still fairly down-ballot democratic despite being over 80% for Donald Trump. Its races are a good look at the partisan gap up and down ballot. Did Democrats hold the Coroner post there? I will answer that later in the month.

When the Dead Win Elections

Another topic I have covered before is the infamous moments when dead people win elections. I delved into that here.

The most famous example is 2000, when Republican Senator John Ashcroft lost re-election to Democratic Governor Mel Carnahan. The major note about that race is that Carnahan tragically died in a plane crash 3 weeks before the vote.

This was not the only instance of such an election taking place.

Another example was Alaska in 1972. At-Large Congressman Nick Begich died when his plan went missing. A few weeks later, his name still won the contest for re-election, defeating future congressman Don Young.

I delve more into those races and a few others in my article on that topic.

October Plans

For October, I have a few Halloween articles planned.

• Look at the 2022 Kentucky Coroner Races

• A look at efforts to make the office appointed

I’ll also have some non-Halloween posts to come. I am finishing up a look at the last elections of North Florida Congressman Alan Boyd. I will also have a look at Abortion politics in Appalachia, which I will be using to look ahead to the Ohio abortion referendum and the Kentucky Governor election.

A reminder, I delved into how Kentucky voted pro-choice on a 2022 ballot measures.

More coming soon!

Happy Halloween!