An Alaska woman who died earlier this month won reelection to a rural school board when her opponent called "heads" on a coin toss that landed on "tails" last week. The coin toss broke the electoral tie between the two candidates, with the deceased woman as the victor, Alaska officials report. Katherine Dunton died of cancer on October 3, the day of the local election. She and her opponent, Dona Highstone ran neck and neck and the election tie had to be broken by a democratic coin toss.

There is a new sheriff in town and his name is Andy Griffith. The Wisconsin man formerly known as William Frederick is running for sheriff of the state's Grant County, under his new name, Andy Griffith. He told reporters that he hoped the name change would draw attention to the otherwise neglected election of county sheriff. "Nobody knows who's running or what the issues are, if there are any issues or how the people differ," Griffith said, expecting the reference to Mayberry's finest to turn heads.

One Michigan County will spend $40,000 after spelling the word "public" wrong on 170,000 Nov. 7 election ballots. The ballot was proofread five times yet the "L" in the word was still left out. County Clerk Daniel C. Krueger said, "It's just one of those words. Even after we told people it was in there, they still read over it. "

If a local ballot initiative passes in Eureka Springs this November, people can smoke the green, green grass of home and not be in the jailhouse now. To the surprise of pot enthusiasts statewide, local leaders of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws have been able to gather enough signatures in this Bible Belt, small tourist economy based town, to put on the election ballot a proposed change in the catagory for minor marijuana offences.

In a strange twist on the usual campaign story, a city council candidate says he tried his very best to get voters to elect his opponents. Paul Herold, an information-technology worker, entered the race for a city council seat in a Twin City suburb, but soon thereafter he found a great job, and found he wouldn't have time to serve in office.