https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=103
No, the Widder “Jean” Carnahan was not elected, nor on the ballot, she was appointed by outgoing Gov. Roger Wilson (who succeeded to the job upon Mel’s death in Oct 2000).
Missouri election law was clear: a nominee must be a resident of the state in which they are running at the time of the election. Mel Carnahan was dead by the election, he was no longer residing in Missouri (he was either residing in heaven or hades, God’s judgment, but NOT Missouri). By that reckoning, his name should’ve been removed from the ballot, and only the name of John Ashcroft and any other 3rd party candidates remain.
I don’t know what the procedure was for write-ins, but if that was legally acceptable, the Democrats would then direct their supporters to write in Jean (not Mel) Carnahan, in which case, she’d have then been elected to the full 6-year term. If she had won in that manner, it should’ve been legal.
This was yet another example of the Republicans being gutless and not challenging a fraudulent election (along with Mary Landrieu & Loretta Sanchez in 1996).
Even if Missouri law didn’t specify that a U.S. Senator must be a resident of the state on Election Day, Article I of the U.S. Constitution sets such requirement. But it is simply false to claim that when an unqualified candidate finishes first in an election that the second-place finisher is entitled to the seat. There have been a lot of candidates who have won an election posthumously, and in every case that I’ve seen it has resulted not in the second-place finisher winning, but in a vacancy (within the past half century, it happened after the deaths of Congressmen Hale Boggs, Nick Begich and Patsy Mink, and it also occurred several times previously, plus in many non-congressional elections). So the Widder Carnahan was not appointed illegally or unconstitutionally.