David Andahl’s Death Didn’t Stop Him From Winning Election

North Dakota voters have elected a Republican to the state legislature even though he wasn’t alive to see the final votes tallied. David Andahl has won a seat in the 8th district in the state’s House of Representatives one month after his death.

Andahl died on Oct. 5 after being hospitalized for four days with the coronavirus. The 55-year-old had previously defeated the incumbent committee chairman Sen. Kevin Cramer in the June primary.

"He had a lot of feelings for his county and his country and wanting to make things better, and his heart was in farming. He wanted things better for farmers and the coal industry," Pat Andahl, David’s mother, told the Bismarck Tribune last month.

"So many things he was very passionate about and was hoping that he could get into the Legislature and be of some help. He was looking forward to it. He was looking forward to being part of that."

Both Andahl and Republican Dave Nehring defeated Democrats to win District 8 House seats. Politico reports Andahl secured nearly 36 percent of the vote.

Last month, Secretary of State Al Jaeger announced the general election ballot could not be alerted after Andahl's death. Mail-in voting in the state began in late-September.

Prior to Andahl's victory, Jaeger said should he win the election, the process would begin to fill the legislator seat vacancy.

"What we have found is most legal authority, the general rule is that the next person up (in the November election results) does not rise up," Legislative Council Director John Bjornson told the Bismark Tribute last month. "[But] this is all new. We haven't encountered this, that we're aware."

North Dakota saw a surge of coronavirus cases in the weeks leading up to the election. The state is averaging 1,151 cases per day over the last week, The New York Times reports.

When Andahl died, North Dakota was only averaging 411 cases per day.