Sad Electoral Note: Florence Steen Loses Vote

Kevin Woster reports that the ballot of Florence Steen, the 88-year-old woman who cast a deathbed vote for Hillary Clinton, is being thrown out. Mrs. Steen got to fulfill a dream and mark her absentee ballot for a female presidential candidate on April 29. She succumbed to congestive heart failure on Mother's Day, and was laid to rest yesterday. Given this due proof of the absentee voter's death prior to the opening of the polls on June 3, Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson is required by South Dakota law (SDCL 12-19-9.2, 12-19-49) to pull the ballot and return it to sender unopened.

One of my readers had asked if that ballot would count. As we thought about it, we figured similar absentee ballots that outlived those who cast them must have slipped through the system before. And there's no fraud here, just an honest woman who cast an honest vote. I agree with Senator Clinton on this one: such a vote ought to count.

I wonder: would counting such absentee ballots create any problems? Unless someone can show some potential for chicanery, it seems changing the law to honor "dying wish" votes would be a perfectly decent thing to do. We can't change the law for this year's primary or the general election, but maybe our legislators can put a sticky note in their planners for the 2009 session: change the death rules on absentee ballots.