Former Governor Gerald Baliles was laid to rest Saturday in Chalottesville – his friends and family knowing that one of his dying wishes came to pass.
From his sick bed, former Governor Baliles took time to cast an absentee ballot, but before Election Day, he died. Friends wondered if his vote still counted. In Chicago, a city known for political corruption, people sometimes joke about votes by the deceased, but here in Virginia there was serious thought given to the situation where some people vote early, in person, and others mail in their ballots. Jim Heilman, secretary of Albemarle County’s Electoral Board, says the vote does count.
“I think the rationale there is people that come in in person vote on the machine, then die before Election Day, there’s no way of taking their vote back, and so we shouldn’t be taking back the votes of people who do it by mail rather than in person.”
As it happened, none of the races in this area were so close that a single vote mattered, but as an ardent Democrat it’s likely Baliles was happy to be part of Virginia’s modest blue wave.
