Our Legislature: Expanding Voting Rights for the Dead

by | Jun 24, 2014 | Carolina Strategic Analysis, Features, NCGA, Voting Rights | 4 comments

Our conservative legislature has gotten a lot of flack lately for their horribly racist and discriminatory new voting laws, which discriminate against those who don’t have proof that they are who they say they are and for whatever reason don’t feel like getting this government-issued proof for free. In addition, legislators made cuts to early voting, which is a shame because a whole week and the option of requesting an absentee ballot just isn’t enough.

So it must have been a pleasant surprise for liberals everywhere to hear that the legislature is considering expanding voting rights for once – this time, for the dead. The Everette Harris Act would clarify election laws and make it clear that absentee ballots cast by dead people will still count. No doubt, this came in response to the hundreds of zombies marching to the Legislative Building and demanding their rights each week.

Actually, it came in response to a successful challenge of a deceased person’s ballot on behalf of some zealous voter integrity advocates. The ballot in question belonged to Mr. Everette Harris, father of Mark Harris, who was of course running in the U.S. Senate Republican primary. The elder Harris unfortunately died before the day of the primary, but lived long enough to cast an absentee ballot, presumably for his son.

This caught the attention of Mr. Steve Mitchell, a Democrat and cattle farmer from Sparta, North Carolina, who is actually in favor of voting rights for the deceased. He thought it would be a brilliant idea to challenge the deceased Harris’s ballot. By getting that ballot thrown out, he would generate the necessary news coverage, and the law could then be changed to allow such ballots to count in the future. Of course, had Mr. Mitchell not acted, the ballot would have been left well enough alone and would have counted, and everyone would have been happy. Which is kind of like drowning a litter of newborn puppies to draw attention to lax animal cruelty laws.

Steve Mitchell: Working tirelessly to protect the dead from people like Steve Mitchell

Steve Mitchell: Working tirelessly to protect the dead from people like Steve Mitchell.

Despite the astonishing insensitivity shown on behalf of Mr. Mitchell and his companions, it appears they might get what they want. H.B. 1267 is being sponsored by Speaker Thom Tillis and two other GOP legislators. The bill would ensure that absentee ballots from voters who die before Election Day are counted.

The bill should not be passed. Absentee ballots are for those who are eligible to vote on Election Day but for whatever reason are unable to cast ballots in person. Those who are dead on Election Day are by definition not eligible. Not only would it give a voice to non-persons, it would also further dilute the meaning of Election Day, that is, one day on which everyone casts votes, and add to the growing phenomenon of “Election Season.”

There is no pressing need to attend to this issue. In elections that are not close, ballots of the deceased are not regularly challenged. Nor would relatives of the deceased be particularly aggrieved if their ballot was not counted on account of their death. The only exception to this is if the relative was a candidate, and the deceased’s vote was denied from being counted for the relative. In that case, the vote has special significance, regardless of its consequence, which no person with a shred of decency would challenge unless the recorded vote was decisive in a certain race. The proposed law would be a short-term, feel-good measure with potential long-term consequences.

Moreover, this so-called “clarification” would validate a craven act of political activism which no legislature should countenance. Ironically, the most proper action in this case is to do nothing, to let the deceased rest in peace and to give the family the period of mourning that was so cruelly denied them. To lend his name to a bad law would do the deceased no favors.

4 Comments

  1. Thomas Ricks

    I wonder if they’ll feel that way if it causes a democrat to win….

  2. Vicki Boyer

    The bill does more, according to discussion on the floor of the house today. Anyone who votes absentee, meaning early vote, and is subsequently declared incompetent or convicted of a felony, will also have their absentee vote counted.

  3. Thomas Ricks

    It’s simple. The democrats should have a law, undoing all statuatory, judicial and executive decisions by Republicans ready to pass before anything else is passed. This law should be on a website for anyone to view.

  4. Troy

    “…had Mr. Mitchell not acted, the ballot would have been left well enough alone and would have counted, and everyone would have been happy.”

    Until a Republican started crossing obituaries with voter registration rolls along with dates and discovered this same thing and it became ‘VOTER FRAUD’; right John? Not unlike the present law we have been force fed concerning voter fraud where, someone was a registered voter in another state and they moved here and registered to vote too, right John?

    If the numbers were such that elections were being influenced by this kind of activity, I’d say the Legislature would have had a case. However, given the margins and the rates of occurrence, it was much ado about nothing. It was just another way to finnagle victory and to try and hold on to a majority when the worm turns and brother, it’s going to turn eventually. The problem will be undoing and fixing the damage that has been done.

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