Tracy City, TN ( USA TODAY) - Voters in Tracy City, Tenn., have overwhelmingly elected a dead man as mayor, ousting the incumbent, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.
Carl Robin Geary Sr. died of a heart attack March 10, but still beat incumbent Barbara Brock 268 to 85 on Tuesday, the newspaper reports.
"I knew he was deceased. I know that sounds stupid, but we wanted someone other than her," Chris Rogers, owner of Lunch Box restaurant, tells the paper. "If he were to run again next week I'd vote for him again."
The seat will now be declared vacant and four aldermen will select a new mayor.
Geary clearly had the momentum all along: someone propped up one of his campaign signs among the floral arrangements at his funeral, the paper says.
The defeated incumbent, who was appointed in 2008 when the previous mayor had died, blamed "good old boys" who didn't like change she had brought.
"Tell me something -- why would people vote for a dead man?" Brock tells the Free Press. "That was the only way they could get my job."
As for her own future: "I'll live -- I'm a survivor."
