Thread: Dead Votes
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Old 11-01-2004, 07:55 AM   #1 (permalink)
KMA-628
....is off his meds...you were warned.
 
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Dead Votes

I am not really one to post a link found on Fark, but this one intrigues me. Also, this falls under the realm of politics and could very well be discussed/debated without the usual BS around here.

Yes, I am as opinionated as most around here, but I honestly think this topic could transcend the usual games here.

The issue: A person dies after filling out (and possibly mailing) an absentee ballot; does the vote count.

***Disclaimer***

Don't bash parties here. None of the bullshit about Republicans do this or Democrats do that, you will only dilute and negate your point

***Disclaimer***

My opinion: I am not firm either way. I can see the reasons where the vote should be counted and I can see the reasons where it shouldn't. Try as I may, I cannot come up with a reason(s) to be 100% either way.

I am probably leaning towards counting the vote. I am as prone to accepting emotional arguments as the next person as this quote from the article got me:

Quote:
Earlier this month, in what would be her last conscious act, 90-year-old Trixie Porter gripped a pen in her weak, trembling hand, checked the candidates of her choice and scrawled a squiggled signature on her absentee ballot.

Within an hour, the petite woman who had been suffering from heart problems lay back in her hospital bed, closed her eyes and never woke up. Her ballot arrived at her local elections board two days later, Oct. 5 - the day she died.
And of course, Florida is a major topic in this article:

Quote:
In Florida alone, more than 1.8 million people, many of them elderly and sick retirees, have cast absentee ballots or voted early in person in the past two weeks.

How many of those voters won't be alive on Election Day? Considering that an average of 455 voting-age people die in Florida every day, and that the 2000 presidential election was decided by a mere 537 votes, dead votes that slip through the cracks could become a meaningful bloc.


What do you think?



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