It used to be if you were dead you were only eligible to vote in Chicago, and only then if you were a Democrat.
Now Slate tells us that it's possible to be dead and still eligible to vote in several other places. There goes one of my favorite punch lines of all time. Damn.
Concetta Bertoldi's book Do Dead People Watch You Shower should have a follow up: The Dead Will Help You Win an Election! (Concetta's book was utterly charming even to a hoary crabby grumpy skeptic like me!)
5 comments:
Awe, damn, South Dakota's stealing our thunder... I guess we'll have to settle for being known for our stuffed pizza and beef sandwiches...
Janet,
I read the Slate article and I must say that I agree with the idea of counting ballots cast by a voter before their death as is done in California.
I look at it as respecting the last act of a citizen's civil responsibility.
I would even say that if the ballot was completed, but had not been mailed before the death of the voter that it should be counted. I can imagine going through the papers on a loved one's desk and coming across bills and such that had not been mailed. If I came across a ballot that had been completed, but not mailed and the election period was still ongoing, I would mail it.
I do not however, extend that same feeling toward votes cast *after* a voter's death.
A few years ago someone I worked with mentioned that she had received an absentee ballot in the mail for her late mother-in-law. She was tempted to fill out that ballot so she could get a second vote, but she didn't. Or at least, she said she didn't.
The Registrar of Voters offices all over this country have so many details to handle with every election, that trying to cull out a dozen or so ballots received by voters who have died after they voted seems like a waste of time.
I mean, it's not like any campaign is going to be able to exploit that little loophole with their Get Out The Vote campaigns (GOTV).
Speaking of which, I need to fill out my absentee ballot that's on my desk before something happens to me!
Dead people not only watch me shower, they ask me not to sing. :-(
Dead people not only watch me shower, they ask me not to sing. :-(~
Nothing worse than discerning dead people.
Mine, on the other hand, have asked me to start singing to let them know when I am taking a shower so they don't have to watch.
LOL @ Southern Writer and Julie Weathers!
In Missouri we once had a dead guy WIN an election. Just imagine being the other party in that race! "Hey! I heard your opponent died! I guess that's one way to win an election!"
"Um . . . well, not really . . ."
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