One last vote: In Michigan, a terminally ill man's mission to cast a ballot

[Judi Lynn]

Jim Williams, 77, gets help from his son David Williams, 51, and his daughter in-law Debra Horner, 50, to drop his ballot off in the box outside of City Hall in Birmingham, Mich., on Sept. 24. (Nick Hagen for The Washington Post)

By Jose A. Del Real
Oct. 17, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. CDT

. . .

Now, with his son and daughter-in-law at his side like guardrails, he took the final steps to the official ballot drop box, intent on placing it in himself. He moved slowly, his face straining from the effort. His son, David, hovered close, in that tentative way sons of elderly parents do — to keep him from falling.

. . .

He was a Democrat but not a partisan, said his son David.
Nonetheless, Williams felt President Trump was toxic. He was especially angry over the president’s suggestion that he would not accept the results of an election if he lost.

. . .

“He was really happy to tell people he had lived long enough to vote,” David remembered.
He died eight days later.

After he was gone, Williams’s family learned his final vote would not be counted under Michigan law. Votes are tallied on Election Day in the state, not as they arrive. Because Williams died before Election Day, his vote would be invalidated. About 850 such ballots had been rejected for the same reason during Michigan’s primary election in August, according to the secretary of state’s office.

. . .

“It’s not that he thought his vote was going to change the election. He believed it was important as an example to his children and grandchildren,” he added. “The way you use your energy, particularly when you don’t have much left, that is a very true reflection of what you really care about.”

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/one-last-vote/2020/10/16/785419e4-0fd4-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I cannot believe his vote was invalidated.

I hope he did not know that this was going to happen.

I am so angry I don't know what to say.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It doesn't seem he had any idea the state would do anything that underhanded, at all.

[Frustratedlady]

2. If he voted during the actual voting period set by the State of Michigan, then it should be counted.

He was alive and of sound mind. The ultimate in suppression.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Don't know how it was legal to do that to people like him who voted in good faith. n/t

[movingviolation]

6. What If you die voting day, but before the poll closes?

[Grins]

5. That should be challenged

He voted the day he delivered his ballot into the custody of election authorities and they accepted it.

“Juanita Jean” said this happened in Texas when she worked in elections, and she stopped it and his vote counted.