General Question

sferik's avatar

If someone votes early but dies before Election Day, does their vote count?

Asked by sferik (6121points) October 30th, 2008
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

16 Answers

AstroChuck's avatar

Yup. Sure does.
It’s not likely to make much of a difference in the outcome, though. I would doubt if it’s a very high percentage.

blastfamy's avatar

This question only becomes relevant if, say, a couple thousand early-voters check out early…

AstroChuck's avatar

It would still stand, though. Once you’ve cast your vote, it’s cast.

Adina1968's avatar

Okay everybody if you know anyone who is at death’s door be sure they get out and vote early! :-) (Especially if they are gonna vote for Obama!)

AstroChuck's avatar

Most of the people at death’s door are likely voting for McCain.

asmonet's avatar

@Adina: That’s gonna be a happy conversation.
“Hey, Grandma! If you’re planning on croaking in the next week, get off you lazy hover roundin’ ass and vote, then it’ll matter.”

robmandu's avatar

BTW… when you cast your vote in the U.S., it’s done anonymously.

Yes, you hafta show up and present your voter registration card (unless you’re illegal, of course) but the ballot you cast has no personal identifying information on it.

Even if someone wanted to revoke your vote, it’s not possible once it’s been cast.

Caveat: With electronic voting machines on the rise, this guarantee might not necessarily hold true in all cases.

Ohhhh… and I didn’t take absentee voting into account (where you mail it in). I was talking more to early voting where you physically show up at a polling location prior to Nov. 4.

Mizuki's avatar

Silly Rabbit, votes don’t count! Unless you live in an overwhelming Republican district!

jballou's avatar

Of course it counts. How could they possibly even know you’re dead? Not only is each vote anonymous, but even if the votes had names on them, they would still have to go through each cast vote and check on the status of each and every voter to even find out. That would take weeks.

IchtheosaurusRex's avatar

Legal ballot = legal vote.

Put it this way: soldiers fighting in Irag and Afghanistan vote early by absentee ballot. If one of those guys got killed and somebody wanted to challenge his vote because of it – how long do you think that asshole would live?

Skaggfacemutt's avatar

I can just see them going through the names of voters in each polling location and comparing it with the obituaries each day. Then on election day, after all the votes are counted, go back through and do a cross-check with the county health department to make sure all those voters are still alive. Ha-ha.

robmandu's avatar

Sounds like an evil republican plot, if you ask me.

Mizuki's avatar

I can hear Fox News Flash: “Dead Voters Put Obama Over the Top” or “Dead Voter’s Found with an Acorns in their Pocket’s”

jballou's avatar

@Skaggfacemutt – Even if they did do that, they have no way of knowing which voters voted for whom. The actual ballot is anonymous, so even if they did waste their time cross referencing the obits and the voter records, they still wouldn’t know which votes to discard. And that’s presupposing that vots cast early by people who have subsequently died shouldn’t count, which isn’t true! If you cast your vote, your vote counts. Period.

Skaggfacemutt's avatar

I know – I was just illustrating how impossible it would be to even attemp to sift out the votes of those who passed away after voting.

jballou's avatar

Ah! In that case, I agree with you

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther