On the list of important political attributes for a candidate to have, a pulse is apparently overrated.
Elections officials in Kern County say a candidate for a seat on a Central California board is still the top vote getter, despite having died last month in a small plane crash.
Votes are still being counted, but 68-year-old Michal Hill is a front-runner among three candidates vying for a pair of seats on the Mojave Air and Space Port board.
A flight instructor and former Navy test pilot, Hill died in October when a two-seater T-67 Firefly he piloted crashed about 100 miles east of Bakersfield. Twenty-seven-year-old student, Ilam Zigante, also died in the crash.
If Hill emerges victorious, the seat will remain vacant. Others members of the board will have the right to appoint someone to fill the seat.