Woman, 93, Votes, Dies Hour Later

[justgamma]

http://www.wfsb.com/politics/17787623/detail.html


BOSTON -- For the 93-year-old matriarch of a Foxborough, Mass., family, voting in this year's presidential election was so important that it was, literally the last thing she ever did.

Dora Fitzgerald's son, Terry, said his mother, who had a worsening heart condition, hung on long enough to be able to cast an absentee ballot from her bed in North Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 8, then died an hour later.

He said his sister worried that Dora might not live long enough to vote in November, so she sent away for an absentee ballot, which Dora signed and mailed with the help of one of his siblings, the Attleborough Sun Chronicle reported.

Fitzgerald said his mother became feistier and more politically opinionated as she grew older, and had celebrated her 91st birthday with a hot air balloon ride in South Carolina, where she had moved to be close to some of her children."


I thought this was a heartwarming story. Bless her heart. She voted for Obama!

[EastTennesseeDem]

1. Bless her

Brought a tear to my eye and a smile to my face.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. May she rest in peace...

[helderheid]

3. to the greatest :)

R.I.P.

[StreetKnowledge]

4. God will be kind to her.

It is indeed a good story. God bless this woman, for trying to be a good person.

One wonders if some GOP screwup will try to have the vote tossed because she was dead on election day. x(

[rcrush]

5. McCain to scare old people into voting for him

By using this story.

[Goldom]

6. out of curiosity...

will her vote actually count, since she won't be alive on election day?

[merci_me]

11. Not in the two states I'm familiar with.

I've worked the election board in both Ohio and Texas and when I did, absentee votes remained sealed in their envelopes, until election day. If the person died before election day, the envelope remained sealed and I guess at some point, destroyed.

If a person is terminally ill, but at least able to be wheeled into an early voting location, they can vote and there is no way to separate their vote from the others cast.

[crispini]

31. I don't know if that's true in Dallas county

You see the vote by mail people every day on the early voting rolls. This, to me, says that the ballots are going in to the same system that early votes do, and would seem to indicate to me that they are being counted as they come in.

[merci_me]

40. It seems logical the rules may have changed

You know, when I've worked at the two offices, it was before the new early voting kicked in. Back then, you had to be out of the county, too ill/incapacitated to go to the polls or over age 65. Those last two reasons, made checking death records logical. However, since anyone can vote early, holding absentee voters to a different standard could be (and probably has been) challenged as discriminatory, since anyone could have voted early and then died and their vote would still count.

As for recording the names of the absentee voters on the lists along with earlier voters, doesn't necessarily mean their vote was opened and counted. It only means their ballot has arrived at the clerks office and the person who mailed in an absentee ballot can't show up at the polls or an early voting location and vote again.

[whopis01]

41. Regarding the early voting -

I just voted here in Florida - and I had never really paid attention to this before, but they have you fill out a card with your name and address, then check it against your ID - then when they get your ballot for you, they tear off a strip and staple it to the card with your name and address. That strip (and the other portion of the ballot) have serial numbers on them. They keep both the ballot (of course) and the other part with your name and address - so it would be possible to separate out an individual's vote from the rest of them.

I never realized that this was the case until just today.

[Divernan]

46. It wouldn't count In Penn. either. This was specifically covered in my Judge of Elections class.

Absentee ballots are not opened or counted until the polling places have officially closed.

[progressivebydesign]

17. In some states, it does count. n/t

[Xithras]

21. Technically it shouldn't

But this is a situation where practicality wins out. There's no way for election boards to re-verify that voters are still alive on elections day. I'm sure this isn't the first time someone has passed away after casting an absentee ballot, but it's a rare enough occurrence that I doubt elections boards are really concerned with it. There's no fraud involved, just an unfortunate bit of timing, so nobody is going to be pressing to nullify her vote.

In theory though, if a local election came down to a single vote deciding the difference, and it was found that a voter had died before election day, the vote would probably be tossed. Single vote margins are incredibly rare though, and only happen in small local races.

[merci_me]

26. But remember

the absentee ballot contains ALL of your vote choices, down to dog catcher. In the presidential, it very likely wouldn't matter. But, one year the governor's race was determined by less than one vote per precinct, take that down to a city council level.

In Ohio, we recieved a daily print out of every death certificate registered in our county and we flagged matching voter registrations. During the times of absentee balloting, those records were updated daily and if an absentee ballot was there, it was pulled and set aside.

[No Elephants]

25. It counted for Dora.

[ddeclue]

7. OTHER POINT: VOTE ABSENTEE!

If you die before the election, your vote still counts in Florida.

Doug D.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. If you die before you vote

then your vote still counts in Chigago.

Even if you die decades before you vote.

:rofl:

vote early. vote often.

[Patiod]

47. damn you bozo

you beat me to it

[Dangerously Amused]

8. So many sweet moments like this...

How good it feels to feel good again, after eight long years... bless her heart.

K&R

[roguevalley]

9. bless her. she cast a ballot for peace.

[KathieG]

10. Aw...Thank you Dora.

:patriot: :cry:

[Life Long Dem]

12. Wow...nice story.

I don't know if you could exactly say she died trying to cast her last vote or not but it's pretty close if you ask me. She must have known something was going on with her health at the time, and she kept going to the last hour of her death to cast the vote.

And for some reason, as I was reading the story, I didn't think this was so she can cast her vote for McSame.

[Tesibria]

13. awesome -- beautiful story

[sonias]

14. I hope they count that ballot

I can't believe that someone could be disenfranchised because they passed away before election day. She was alive when she cast her ballot and that's what should count!

Bless her soul, may Dora Fitzgerald rest in peace.

Sonia

[grantcart]

15. Now she can help from the other side God speed

[kestrel91316]

16. Republicans to challenge her vote in 3......2.....1.......

[FLyellowdog]

18. 93 wonderful years and to end on such a high note. Sweet!

[regnaD kciN]

19. A-ha! PROOF of Democratic voter fraud!

Now we know for a fact that at least some of the Obama votes counted on November 4th will have come from people already deceased!

:eyes:

[Window]

20. Oh, man. RIP Mrs. Fitzgerald.

[MindMatter]

22. At the risk of spoiling this wonderful story, I have a technical question

With early voting, does the voter have to be alive on the official election day, or does a person's vote count if a person was alive at the early voting time?

Considering that dead people aren't allowed to vote (excepting Chicago, of course), it would seen that the voter ought to be alive on election day.

[merci_me]

27. You're covered on early voting because

there is no way (or should be no way) for them to determine which vote was was yours.

[No Elephants]

29. Didn't read the prior posts?

[HughMoran]

30. ...apparently not

doh!

[BlooInBloo]

23. What a way to go out.

[Marrah_G]

28. I am sitting at my desk in Foxborough!

Rarely do we have news here that isn't related to the Patriots!

Cheers for Dora, may she rest in a well earned peace.

[berni_mccoy]

32. Republicans will try to challenge her vote since she died before election day.

[marimour]

34. lol i wouldn't be surprised

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. God Bless you, Dora. Wherever you are.

[budkin]

35. What a great last act

[Jennicut]

36. Wow. Amazing story. I am going to make sure my 87 year old Grandma votes.

She is voting for Obama as well. Her past husbands/boyfriends have been racist against blacks, but she sees no color. I am very proud of her and I will make sure she gets her ballot in.

[bigwillq]

37. RIP Dora.

:( :cry:

[Orsino]

38. Now you've done it. The Republicans are gonna challenge her vote for sure.

And get her entire precinct's ballots thrown out.

[hamsterjill]

39. A true patriot!

Bless her heart. Peace and comfort to her family.

[jillan]

42. Here come the tears.

May she rest in peace.

[BrklynLiberal]

43. wow. That is so sad and so fantastic at the same time..

[fourvahl]

44. Touching

Rest peacefully, Dora.

[cui bono]

45. Within minutes of hearing the news the McCain campaign filed an injunction

against her vote and held a press conference.

"Since on election day she will still be dead", stated Rick Davis, "and dead people should not determine future policies."






:sarcasm:

[casus belli]

48. Or - How to depart in style.

Rest in peace, Dora.

[Fire1]

49. God's speed, Dora.