ST. LOUIS — In the midst of a global pandemic, record numbers of voters chose to cast their ballot before Election Day. In Missouri, more than 827,000 ballots have been received at local election authorities. More than 3 million Illinois voters have cast their ballots early.
Over the same period of time, 800 Missourians and more than 1,200 Illinoisans have died due to COVID-19, according to each state’s public health department.
A 5 On Your Side viewer asked, what happens to the vote of someone who dies before Election Day? It turns out, that depends on when a state processes the ballot it receives.
Illinois
Matt Dietrich, spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections, wrote: “Once a vote-by-mail ballot is processed – which happens upon receipt of the ballot at the election authority – the votes are recorded and can’t be withdrawn. This is the same with early voting.”
So if a voter’s ballot arrives before they pass away, the voter roll will show them to be a living, registered voter, and the vote will be recorded.
Rarely, a ballot will be rejected because the voter died while the ballot was in the mail, before it was received at the election authority. Dietrich said that’s the case with 40 mail-in ballots so far this election, out of 2.35 million vote-by-mail ballots across the state.
“While the law accounts for outstanding mail ballots that were marked by the voter prior to death, the reality is it’s unlikely such a ballot could be intercepted and canceled between the time of mailing (or direct delivery to the election authority) and the death of the voter who filled it out,” wrote Dietrich.
So we can Verify, yes—in Illinois, if a person gets their vote to their election authority and then dies before election day, their vote will count.
Missouri
The Missouri Secretary of State’s office told 5 On Your Side each county might handle absentee votes differently, whether in person or by mail.
In general, Missouri ballots received in the mail aren’t processed until closer to Election Day. That means that if the voter dies just before their absentee or mail-in ballot is processed, the ballot can be rejected, even if it arrived at the election authority weeks before.
“When absentee or mail-in ballot envelopes are reviewed, the voter’s registration information is updated at that time, indicating its receipt. If the voter is noted in his or her record as deceased, the ballot will not be counted,” wrote Maura Browning of the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.
Things are a little different for jurisdictions with in-person voting. Voters who cast an absentee ballot on a machine at their election authority or a satellite voting location might have their vote recorded that day. In that case, it wouldn’t be rejected if they died before Election Day.
So we can Verify, no—in Missouri, if a ballot arrives in the mail at the election authority and the voter dies before it is opened, that vote can be thrown out.
