As in, “that living, breathing person who lost an election to a dead person”?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A dead woman won re-election to a school board in rural Alaska after her opponent lost a coin flip meant to break an electoral tie.

Katherine Dunton, who died of cancer on Oct. 3, the day of the local election, was re-elected to the Aleutian Region School District board after her opponent, Dona Highstone, called “heads” on a coin toss that landed “tails,” state and local officials said.

“This is the first that I have ever heard about, not only in our state but in any other,” said Whitney Brewster, director of the Alaska Division of Elections.

Contrary to Ms. Brewster’s assertion that this election outcome is unprecedented, in 2000, John Ashcroft – as in the former Attorney General for Bush 43, and then-incumbent Republican Senator from Missouri John Ashcroft – lost his U.S. Senate re-election bid to a dead man. That has to hurt.