If it was too late to remove Mel Carnahan’s name from the ballot under MO law, then his name stays on the ballot. I’m sure that the Democrats would have preferred to replace his name on the ballot with that of his widow (new Gov. Wilson had promised to appoint the widow if Dead Mel won, but at least some voters wouldn’t countenance voting for a dead man), but the law didn’t permit them to do so.
And in any event, Ashcroft didn’t win the election, so he could not be seated on January 3. When there’s a vacancy in a Senate seat, the Constitution permits states to empower the governor to appoint a temporary senator (to serve until an election is held), and MO law so empowered Gov. Wilson. Wilson could appoint whomever he wished, so long as he or she met the constitutional qualifications to serve in the U.S. Senate (which Jeanne Carnahan met). An unfortunate turn of events, but not an illegal, much less unconstitutional, act. Ashcroft shouldn’t have taken such a long break from campaigning after Mel died.
No, I’m saying that because once he died in October, it was deemed too late to have a substitute candidate on the ballot and that since he no longer met state or federal requirements of being a legal citizen of the state, his name should be removed from the ballot. There should’ve been no Democrat nominee on the official ballot. They had ample time to mount a write-in candidacy for the widow.
My point here is simple: #1, Mel Carnahan being deceased, was not a legal candidate under either state/fed law. Since he was not a legal candidate, and was illegally kept on the ballot, any votes for him could not be counted as legitimate. #2, Since only the votes for legal candidates could be counted, that meant that (absent a write-in campaign for Jean Carnahan) Ashcroft would win because he had no Democrat opponent due to Mel Carnahan’s disqualification and it being too late to offer a substitute nominee on the Dem ballot. #3, Because Carnahan was illegally declared the winner when his candidacy was illegitimate due to death, there was no vacancy to be filled and therefore Gov. Wilson could not appoint anyone to the seat effective 1/3/2001.
I will continue to argue this point that this was both an illegal election AND illegal appointment. The only way in which it would not have been is if Mel Carnahan had been alive on Election Day, won the election, and died in the interim between November and January, in which case the Governor would then be empowered to make an appointment to the seat, with a special election to be held no later than November 2002.
Although laws vary from state to state on the process of replacing nominees due to whatever reason after a primary has been held, I would make the argument absent state law (as in the case of my state of TN, which requires a dead nominee be removed from the ballot, or MO), federal law would seem to indicate that this should be the policy for every state for Congress/Senate. If a nominee is deceased before a general election, rendering them a non-resident, they are no longer a qualified candidate and must be removed from the ballot and no votes for them counted.