Video: Why We Elect a County Coroner

Montgomery County Coroner Walter I. Hofman voted soon after the polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, at his polling station at the Merion Tribute House.

Hofman, an incumbent Democrat elected to his first four-year term in 2007, was running unopposed Tuesday—like the majority of county- and township-wide races within the two parties. He will face GOP challenger Gordon S. Clement of Whitpain Township in the fall.

“Hopefully today is an anomaly, and in November we’ll have a nice, sunshiny day,” Hofman said. 

Despite the weather, he planned to visit as many Lower Merion polling stations as he could Tuesday, in effect starting his campaign for the general election on primary day. If you met him today, chances are good that he told you he is the only board-certified forensic pathologist who holds the post of coroner in all of Pennsylvania.

In the video above, he talks about why coroners are elected in the decreasing number of American jurisdictions where they not appoimted and the history of the job.