Jimmy Carter turned 100 on October 1, making him the oldest former president. According to his family, Carter, also a former Georgia governor who has been in hospice care since February 2023, wanted to live long enough to cast his ballot for Kamala Harris. He passed that milestone on Tuesday, as early voting commenced in Georgia.
But with three weeks to go before Election Day, this raises a question? If Carter casts an absentee ballot and doesn’t make it until November 5, will the state count his vote?
Georgia law doesn’t address this question.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, most states haven’t stipulated what to do in such cases. Ten specifically mandate the counting of absentee ballots regardless of the voter’s corporeal status. (Connecticut allows it only when the deceased voter had been an active military member.) Another 10 states specifically forbid the counting of such ballots. Two—Kentucky and Mississippi—don’t have a statute addressing the issue, but reject the ballots based on legal opinions by their attorneys general. Three others allow residents to challenge such ballots. Here’s a map based on the NCSL tally:
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Were I your king, or an authoritarian leader—something we may have soon enough—I would allow such votes because they reflect the hopes and fears of then-living Americans for their own near futures and for the futures of their families.
The reason we don’t let people cast votes after death is obvious: They’re dead, which means those votes would be fraudulent. (Besides, how far back would you go? Would you let the late Shirley Chisholm vote? How about Barry Goldwater?)
My preference on the absentee ballot question suggests I would be a benevolent authoritarian. But the one we might end up with would, I fear, only allow the votes of newly deceased Republicans to be counted.
Heck, he might even Make Goldwater Eligible Again. (MGEA?)
Godspeed, Mr. Carter.
