Jimmy Carter Achieves His Goal, Lives Long Enough to Vote for Kamala Harris

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.
- Also the thousands of people who die on election day, a non-zero number of which voted earlier that day.
- 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 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. 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.
- That makes a lot of sense, thanks!
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.
The answer is different in different states. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/counting-absentee-ballots-after-a-voter-dies
I believe that depends on the state the vote was cast in
in the battleground states: likely not because you need sufficient justification for going absentee/mail; something that isn't common to the other states.

No president is perfect. Some are much worse or much better than others. The US would greatly benefit from having more Jimmy Carters as president.

His failure was not including Washington insiders into his cabinet. It's the lesson that people often forget. The president can't be a total outsider and expect to be successful.
- I could see that being an issue for sure. But I will still say that falls well short of the things some other president's have done.
Remember when there was a crisis at a nuclear power plant, and the president rushed to the scene...to help, because he's a qualified nuclear engineer? I don't, I wasn't born yet when that happened.
- I've already come to view Jimmy Carter as an unappreciated rockstar, and I didn't even know this story. I just Googled it for those interested. It doesn't seem like it was when he was president, but still completely badass/downright heroic.
- I wasn't either. But when I heard the story I wished we would have another president who cared like that.
My dad always said Jimmy Carter was too good of a man to be a good president.
I vote for this comment

And it’s a Georgia vote so it matters.

All votes matter.
- All votes should matter. Thanks to gerrymandering and the electoral college rules, not a lot actually do
  
  Specifically for president. They absolutely matter for local elections.
- Yes, but some much more than others.
- the electoral college used by slave states to pad their votes with the 3/5ths compromise would like to have a word with you.
- Not according to the electoral college.
This is actually an interesting legal edge case. What happens if someone casts an absentee ballot, but then dies before election day? It turns out that it's actually very state-specific. Half of states have no provisions for how such a case is handled. Of those that address it, some explicitly allow the votes to be counted, and some explicitly prohibit these votes to be counted.

https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/counting-absentee-ballots-after-a-voter-dies

It's a pretty interesting bit of legal trivia. The whole principle of absentee ballots is that you are not really casting your vote 'early.' It's not like they publish the results of absentee ballots ahead of time. Really you're effectively saying, "I can't make it on election day." An argument can be made that they shouldn't be counted. Why should someone who happens to get a ballot in early and dies be able to have their vote counted, but someone who was planning to vote on election day, but died in the interim, won't have it counted? On the other hand, a good argument can be made that we shouldn't punish those who plan ahead, and as a general rule we just accept the ballots out of respect for the recently deceased. It's interesting that the states that count them or don't are distributed fairly randomly across regions and the political spectrum; it's not really a partisan thing.

But it is a bit of legal trivial that yes, in some states, the dead are literally allowed to vote under certain very specific circumstances.
Still crazy that so many votes don't matter. That said, everyone should vote. No excuses.
- Not even living in the country and I still managed it. Minimal fuss.

And let's hope he lives to see her elected.

Even better if he sees Trump in prison.

Early voting is voting.

What a lifetime this man has experienced.

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.
- Wait, Mitch McConnell is dead?
wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even wait that long

It would've been funny if immediately after casting his vote he dissolved into a beautiful light

He disappears in a flash of light. In his wake, he leaves an affordable housing complex behind.
- Also, a lifetime supply of peanuts to all residents who aren't allergic 🥜
- Reminds me of a picture book I had as a kid, except instead of Jimmy Carter it was a turtle
Blue lightning as Sam Beckett leaps away to the next problem he has to fix.

Congrats Lt. Carter and some of us will be voting next week too.

If he died on Nov. 5th, would they invalidate his vote?

My absentee ballot finally came this week. I'm so excited to get my vote in and be done with all of this nonsense.

You'll be even more excited when the 2028 campaign starts in three weeks!

inb4 he dies of a heart attack immediately after casting his vote

it's georgia so i'm expecting them to invalidate it somehow and probably after he's died so that no one can fight it.

I thought his goal was peace in Palestine not apartheid, and definitely not genocide.

Hence not voting for the lunatic wannabe despot.
- Harris hasn't come out in disagreement with Biden's policy over the last year.
Which is why he didnt vote for the guy Israel named a settlement after
- Who does Blinken work for?
the security of Israel must be guaranteed

The title is provocative, but the plan inside is bothsidesism.

If he dies in the next month we’re gonna have problems

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.