I was actually wondering about this, since a close relative of mine probably won’t make it to election day: if you legally cast your ballot (mail in or absentee), but die before Election Day, does your vote still count?
Yea. Not only that, when you hear about “dead people voting”, this is often the explanation.
The other big chunk is people who have the same or a similar name. Like “It says here David Jones died five years ago, but David Jones voted today. Suspicious?” “Dude, I’m David Jones Jr. The David Jones who died was my dad, David Jones Sr. Dick.” Or whatever.
I am a IIIrd, the third person down my male line with the same first, middle, and last name
I’m the 5th with our exact initials, too
One time, while applying for college, I was told I’d already used my GI bill allotment back in '55. Uh… That was grandpa, and he died over 30 years before I was born, how did you mix us up?!?!
(Also, I was never in the military and this was entirely irrelevant to me they just brought it up as something I couldn’t do)
I would love to know the winners of past elections counting only the votes of dead people.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Harris wins in the demography this time around. The greatest generation knows what it means to defeat fascists. But then again there are probably more boomers and anti vaxers dying these days.
Depends on the state. Georgia, where Carter lives, is silent on the issue so it should count. Some state explicitly allow counting them, some states explicitly forbid counting. Some states are silent on the issue.
Once the ballot is cast, there’s no way to pull it out. If you could, that would violate the secrecy of the ballot. They would be able to know who anyone voted for.
Ignore me, sounds like he’s probably right
~~I really don’t think this is true, ballots get pulled out all the time if they’re found to be invalid. If there’s an issue with how it’s filled out, like bubbling multiple entries or signature issues, stuff like that, if there’s an issue with their registration or the incredibly rare instances of actual voter fraud, all those ballots get pulled out unless they get corrected.
I guess I can kinda see your point about how if an individual ballot gets challenged and removed, and you see the overall vote count change by one you’d obviously know who that ballot was cast for. But in order for that to happen it would have to be an invalid ballot, so I’m not sure it’s really that important to keep a vote that didn’t count secret. Also in this particular case the person’s dead.
I’m certainly not advocating a law like this be passed, and maybe there’s some federal policy that would prevent it from being enforced, but logistically speaking I don’t see the problem.~~
Depends on the state. Looks like Carter is registered in Georgia. According to an article from 2020 when Republicans were bald face lying that long dead people were voting a lot, someone from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office is quoted as saying secrecy rules don’t allow rejecting a ballot when a voter dies before Election Day.
“You can’t go back and get that ballot back out. It’s just physically impossible, given the privacy rules in our state,”. May or may not still be accurate, or may have never been accurate, but that’s what the first article I found when searching says.
The answer is different in different states. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/counting-absentee-ballots-after-a-voter-dies
What a lifetime this man has experienced.
If he died on Nov. 5th, would they invalidate his vote?
Up until the 1880s pretty much all Americans ballots weren’t private. Some states still technically aren’t private.
America isn’t a true democracy anyway with its Gerrymandering, two party system, and registration to vote.
Aside from your needlessly hostile response — They can tell if you voted. Your ballot is linked to your name.
“if voted” is different from “voted for”. In a true democracy it must not be traceable who someone voted for. It simply cannot be the case in a proper democracy that the people who voted for the opponent get punished for their vote after transfer of power.
And if he dies before the election, they will accuse him of voter fraud.
Diane Feinstein and Mitch McConnell both served in Congress well after they died.
I hate this type of headline. He is still living (hopefully), but you are not sure.
I hate this type of headline. He is still living (hopefully), but you are not sure.
You didn’t even care to click on that link. He cast the vote already.
No, they’re right. Even after reading the article, it just assumes he voted, but there’s no confirmation.
In fact, The Guardian reports that he voted on Wednesday, so he effectively didn’t vote yet when this article was posted.
