…is your vote still valid?
Just curious.
My WAG is yes – it doesn’t really seem any different than if you vote in the morning and then die before the votes are tallied. Besides how would the people running the election know that you’d died?
I don’t see why not. The vote was legally cast, it should count. Heck, under some Democratic regimes in Chicago, some people have voted after they died. 
If present trends continue
Before the homicide detective will be able to ask a dying victim if he knows who shot him, the guy with a political button will want him to cast a ballot for next years election. And the network exit poll will have a new meaning.
I just thought you might need to be an eligible voter on Nov.2 for the vote to count. If you turn 18 on Nov. 2 you can still vote early, right?
It depends on the laws of the state. The Constitution is a floor, not a ceiling. That’s why you had women granted the vote in several states long before 1920. I believe most states have the law so that if you are 18 on or before the general election, you can also vote in the primaries. Along those lines, I don’t see why being able to vote early or getting an absentee ballot would be any different.
I recall a few years ago where this happened, and it affected the recount in some small town. Not sure why the ballot was segregated at this time, but maybe it had been misplaced, or maybe they knew she had died before the initial count, so put her absentee ballot aside, until it became an issue in the recount.
IIRC, the ruling was that her vote was invalid, since she was not eligible to vote on election day. But I suspect this will vary from state to state. I wish I could find a cite.
I found an article about this.
I’m sure this will generate a lawsuit, stemming from a “seperate but NOT equal treatment” contention.
Example “A”: Jane Doe is 94 yrs old and goes to vote in Florida (where they have early voting). After casting her ballot, on the way home, she drops dead. “Concerned” neighbors inform the county election board that she’s now dead and no longer eligible to vote. Because she voted via a regular ballot, there’s no way to retrieve HER ballot and invalidate her votes. Thus, her votes stand.
Example “B”: John Smith is 22 and serving in Iraq. He casts his ballot via absentee as he will not be in his home state of Florida when election day rolls around. A few days later, he’s killed in a roadside bomb attack. “Concerned” members of his company inform the county election board that he’s now dead and no longer eligible to vote. The county election board pulls his absentee ballot and his votes do not count.
Um, did’nt a dead guy get elected somewhere in the states recently? :dubious:
It merely depends if it is caught or not. If you vote absintee and die and it’s caught, it will not be counted. But it no one catches it, then it will be counted on the Nov. 2 election.
If you spend five seconds reflecting on it, you would know the answer.
hint: they don’t know which vote is yours.
Why is this even an issue? How is it significantly different from when voters die after the election but before the president-elect takes office?
Surely it’s quite different. If you cast a vote and then die before the election result is finalised, your vote could possibly be discarded (depending on the relevant electoral laws and whether or not electoral officials can actually identify your vote). Your vote would thus have no effect on the outcome. If you die after the election result has been finalised, then your vote was taken into account in deciding the result.
Doesn’t sound that way so far.