Ballot Access News has just learned that a write-in candidate was elected to the Massachusetts legislature on November 7, 2006. The incumbent state representative, Deborah Blumer (D-Framingham) had died on October 13, 2006. Her name was printed on the ballot as a candidate for re-election, and no other person’s name was on the ballot. Massachusetts election law did not permit the ballots to be reprinted, so that left the voters with the name of a deceased person on the ballot, and a write-in space. The Democratic Party organization endorsed Pam Richardson as a write-in candidate, and the Republican Party organization endorsed Nicolas Sanchez as a write-in candidate.

The results were: Richardson 4,259; Sanchez 3,045; other write-ins 1,811; and Blumer, the deceased candidate, 2,306.