Run for Coroner, No Medical Training Necessary
St. Lawrence County is among 1,600 counties around the country that elect its coroners. They are paid employees; they make about $6,000 a year and get health insurance.
They don’t do autopsies — that’s done by the medical examiner from a neighboring county. Coroners do pronounce people dead and sign death certificates. You don’t have to have any medical training to be a coroner here. You just have to live in the county and be old enough to get on the ballot.
Even though they run for office on party lines, party politics don’t matter very much, Wood says. People politics do.
“Basically, to be a coroner, you just have to be publicly popular,” she says. “I guess it’s more of a popularity contest. Then you learn the job as you go.”
Warner, the Democratic candidate, agrees. A few weeks ago, all the coroner hopefuls were at another meet-the-candidates event. While other politicians were asked their opinions on New York State’s tough new gun laws, the coroners weren’t.