Your early vote counts in Ohio if you die before Election Day

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) – Democratic former President Jimmy Carter, who is 100 years old and in hospice care, cast his vote Tuesday during Georgia’s early voting period. His daughter-in-law reportedly cast his ballot. If he dies before Election Day, his early voting in Georgia will count. It has raised questions about what would happen in Ohio in similar situations.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said if a voter casts a regular ballot by mail or in person during the early voting period and presents proper identification, there is a long-standing practice by election boards.

“The Ohio Revised Code is actually silent on this. What would happen in this scenario is not specifically regulated in the law. But I can tell you that our election boards have a long-standing practice of counting your vote if you were alive at the time you cast your vote,” LaRose said.

LaRose said there are also practical considerations. He said once identity is proven, the ballots themselves are separated from the identifying information to keep the ballot secret.

“Once the separation between your identity and the ballot is made, only one of the ballots in the total batch will be ready to be counted on election night at 7:30 p.m.,” LaRose said. “So there’s no way to go back and find out, ‘Well, this is the ballot of this person who is now deceased.’ It becomes inconvenient to go back and look for that particular ballot and somehow fish it out.”

On November 5th, after the polls close, in-person and mail-in ballots will be counted first. But LaRose said voters concerned about their health could benefit from early voting.

“This is just another good reason to use mail-in voting,” LaRose said.

Carter, the 39th president, had said he planned to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris before his death. He is the longest-living president in American history.