BLOOMINGDALE — Roger Oliver, the St. Armand highway superintendent who died last Saturday, will remain on the ballot for re-election Nov. 7, but the town’s Republican committee is transferring its endorsement to Douglas Snickles Jr.

Tom Burman, head of the town’s Republican committee, made the announcement Friday morning.

“We are deeply saddened by the untimely death of Roger Oliver,” Burman wrote in an email. “Our condolences go out to the Oliver family, they are in our thoughts and prayers.

“Roger will remain on the ballot as an independent candidate for his Clear Roads party. The republican party will place Doug Snickles on the ballot for Superintendent of Highways.”

Oliver, 58, of Bloomingdale, won the Sept. 12 Republican primary over Snickles by just one vote, 51-50, after absentee ballots were counted. Eleven days later on Sept. 23, Oliver died at University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

Snickles was the deputy superintendent and has taken over running the town’s highway department after Oliver’s death.

Both men had filed to run on their own lines as well as the GOP, Snickles with the Top Dog Party and Oliver the Clear Roads Party, so they will both be on the general election ballot regardless of who is on the Republican line.