A man who recently died won the Republican primary for state assembly in a northern New York district on Tuesday. 
 
 Although uncommon, this was by no means the first time American voters have cast their ballots for the deceased. 
 
 Bill Nojay, 59, the incumbent in the 133rd district near Rochester, fatally shot himself last Friday, the New York Times reported. His name still appeared on the primary ballot and he beat his opponent, Rick Milne, the mayor of Honeoye Falls. 
 
 Now that Nojay has won, a successor must be chosen within 10 days of his death by the chairmen of the Republican parties in Monroe, Steuben and Livingston counties, which make up New York’s 133rd district. That person will go on to face Democrat Barbara Baer, a lawyer and social worker who is running unopposed, in the general election. 
 
 Lowell Conrad, the chairman of the Livingston County Republican party, told the Times he hoped to find someone “as close to him as possible, philosophically” to take Nojay’s place. 
 
 The incumbent assemblyman was an early supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential run and urged him to run for New York governor as a path to the White House in 2013, according to the Times. Nojay was later a co-chairman of Trump’s New York campaign committee. 
 
 The Hornell Republican committee had previously endorsed Nojay. Despite his death, they encouraged citizens to cast their vote for him on Facebook. A page for Nojay’s campaign asked voters to honor the assemblyman’s memory by voting for him one last time. While one voter expressed discomfort with the “idea of casting a ballot for someone to be named later”, the few other online commenters said they would vote for Nojay. 
 
 “Asking people to vote for Mr Nojay, I don’t believe that’s truly being done to memorialize the person; I believe it’s because they want to get their own local person elected,” Milne told the Times of his opponent on Monday. 
 
 Both local and national elections have seen politicians elected posthumously. In 1962 in California, congressman Clement Miller who died in a plane crash was reelected to the House of Representatives, according to the Washington Post. In 1972, congressmen Nick Begich and Hale Boggs vanished in a plane in Alaska and won their reelections. Former Missouri governor Mel Carnahan won the US Senate race in his state in 2000, though he died in a plane crash. Congresswoman Patsy Mink won re-election in Hawaii in 2002 after she died from pneumonia. Local officials have been elected in Missouri, Washington state, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama despite having passed away before the election. Their posts were filled by appointments or special elections. 
 
 The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported that Nojay was scheduled to appear in court on Friday on fraud-related charges over his handling of a trust fund as an attorney. Additionally, he was “a silent partner in a company that won a tentative contract to oversee the second phase of the $1.3bn Rochester schools modernization project” and involved in a separate fraud trial in Cambodia, the paper wrote. 
 
 Nojay had a lengthy local political history and was also the host of his own radio show, an attorney and a small-business owner, according to his biography. According to the Associated Press, he was “critical of the state legislature, where he had limited influence in the Democratic-dominated assembly” and “claimed too little was being done to help upstate New York”. He was also an advocate of gun rights and an opponent of abortion, the Associated Press wrote. 
 
 The Rochester native had graduate degrees in law and business from Columbia University and was once a research fellow at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. He and his wife had three children. His funeral will be held on Friday. ||||| Bill Nojay speaks at a gun rights rally in 2013. | AP Photo/Mike Groll Voters hand Nojay primary victory in aftermath of his suicide 
 
 ALBANY — Four days after Assemblyman Bill Nojay committed suicide in his family’s Rochester burial plot, voters appeared poised to hand him a victory against his Republican primary challenger. 
 
 The win by Nojay means local Republican officials will get to choose the party’s nominee for the November general election. 
 
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 With more than 91 percent of election districts reporting as of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Nojay had a 58 percent to 41 percent lead over Honeoye Falls Mayor Richard Milne. 
 
 The win isn’t completely surprising. In recent days, several prominent Republicans in the region urged voters to cast their ballots for Nojay. 
 
 “At a prior meeting of the Hornell GOP, the committee unanimously endorsed Assemblyman Bill Nojay,” the Hornell Republican Committee said Sunday in a statement. “Despite the unexpected and tragic loss of our Assemblyman, the endorsement still stands.” 
 
 Conservative radio host Bob Lonsberry described his forthcoming vote for Nojay as “a memorial to a man who I truly believe was an excellent public servant. It’s a sign of respect for his grieving family, and it’s a reflection of my political choice.” 
 
 Lonsberry, like others, also described Milne as too moderate for the district — he supports gay marriage, for example. 
 
 Because of views like this, it’s unlikely the district’s Republicans will be happy if the party gives its line to Milne. And the fact that he recently lost a vote to a deceased person will probably make it difficult to make a case that he would be a likely winner in November.
– A New York state lawmaker running for re-election killed himself Friday, four days before the state's Republican primary, the Democrat and Chronicle reports. Police were called about a distraught man at an area cemetery and arrived to see Bill Nojay shoot and kill himself. He died next to his brother's grave in his family's burial plot. It's unclear what led Nojay to kill himself, but the lawmaker had recently become embroiled in a number of controversies. According to the New York Times, he was accused of embezzling $1.8 million from a legal client and was supposed to be in court on those charges Friday. And federal investigators are looking into an agricultural business Nojay started in Cambodia after he allegedly took a $1 million donation from a Cambodian dentist and had nothing to show for it. He was also being investigated for his role in a $1.3 billion deal to modernize schools, the Albany Times Union reports. The 59-year-old father of three was first elected to the state assembly in 2012. Nojay was known for going against Democrats and Republicans alike and for his anti-gun control work. He hosted a local radio show and had been championing Donald Trump for president since 2013. He also worked on elections in Afghanistan and Ukraine. Nojay will remain on the primary ballot. If he ends up winning Tuesday, party leaders will have to nominate a replacement for the general election. Nojay's Republican challenger, Richard Milne, says he's "devastated" by the news and is "suspending all political activity until further notice."