Breaking News: Sen. Barack Obama’s grandmother has passed away.
 

http://www.cnn.com/

Sen. Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died after a battle with cancer, his campaign office says.

oh wow...the day before the election..I was hoping that she would make it through the election so she could perhaps witness her grandson becoming president. If he does win this will be a very bittersweet time for Obama. Thank God he took those few days out of his schedule to spend time with her.

Oh, this is so sad. I was hoping she'd make it to Election Day.:(

:(:( Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

RIP, Mrs. Dunham.

OOOHHHHHHHH!! Damn. I so hoped she'd make it to see him make history tomorrow. Well, she'll just have a different seat to the show, I guess. And now he'll know she'll be up there with his Mom and they'll watch over him and be able to celebrate together. Rest in peace, "Toot".

Oh, this is so sad. If only she had made it one more day.
RIP.

At his High School Graduation
 

^^^Aw, that just choked me up.

May she rest in peace :(

And may God grant Barack strength during this time.

This is terrible. I was hoping she'd make it to see whether or not he'd get the presidency.

RIP

That's really sad - it would have been nice if she could have seen him elected tomorrow.

Dammit, me too.

When I was looking at some of the pictures of Obama and his grandparents, I was amazed at how much he resembles his maternal grandfather.

This is so sad, you guys. Grandparents can be very special people--especially when they take over the parent role.

I too had hoped she would live to see him elected. I'd been feeling morose that my mom didn't live to see him elected (she would be ecstatic). I can't imagine the roller coaster of emotion he must be experiencing right now, especially considering that he must be exhausted at this point in the campaign.

RIP Mrs. Dunham

I hope if she voted in advance, there's a mechanism to separate that ballot out.

He announced last week he didn't think she'd make it to election day.

Wow, way to be a raging, inappropriate bitch, Tess.

And btw, though I'm sure you think your signature is clever, I hope you realize that most people will just glance at it and assume it's another supportive siggy for Obama. So good job supporting the change we can believe in!

Wow. That's harsh.

I refuse to believe that you're saying what I think you're saying.

You're being too kind, Sen. I 100% guarantee she's saying what you think she's saying.

I did a double take on that post. Then I realized it was "shoot-em-up" DGTess and I wasn't that surprised.

I have to be kind.

In another lifetime, I might be putting on my all black, picking up a baseball bat, and taking a 20 minute ride.

The signature fooled me.

I got a text about this a couple hours ago. I'm so incredibly sad for him.
You're right, it'd be totally awesome if she'd voted early and he got to have her ballot given to him afterward. (I've had enough crap today so yes this statement will mean something sweet whether you want it to or not.)

What does this mean? Is it a threat about the distance to Alexandria or something I should recognize?

Not a threat.

That wouldn't have seemed like you, but I didn't get the reference.

Mrs. Dunham did vote via absentee mail in ballot before Barack came home to visit her.

I doubt that the raging, inappropriate bitch behavior I saw a few posts above will spill into Honolulu Hale, where our Office of the Elections is located. Her vote will count, just like mine and yours.

i love you. this is the only thing that's made me smile today.

See? There's such a thing as trying to be too clever, right?
LOL.

Then they may be knowingly committing election fraud. In lots of states she's not an eligible voter if she's dead on election day and if the elections officials are aware of that (which everyone in the country is now) then her vote should be disqualified when they start to open and tally the absentee ballots.

I know it's mean sounding and isn't something I would have brought up, but it is the law in many states (can't find anything about HI in particular).

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalra...-grandm-1.html

Hawaii will count her absentee ballot.

I doubt our elections official would go on the record and say that they will count it if they knew they were committing voter fraud.

Well I dare say that he did just that (go on the record saying they are breaking election law, that is). I did some legal research and looked at Hawaii's statutes and Hawaii Revised Statutes § 15-13 addresses "Death of voter prior to opening of polls" and says:

Well, if we're going to get morbid, here, what would define "sufficient proof", CB? Does that mean a death certificate needs to have already been produced for presentation to the clerk? It's very possible the actual certificate wouldn't be produced in less than 48 hours -- so if the certificate isn't created yet and the ballot has otherwise met all of the requirements of an absentee ballot, is there still an argument?

And please note the last sentence in the part you quoted -- "The casting of any such ballot SHALL NOT invalidate the election."

Yeah which means that Hawaii wouldn't have to revote. It does mean the election official is breaking the law.

And I would bet the statement from Obama HQ about the death or the obituary which will run tomorrow is sufficient proof. I don't know and it really doesn't matter, but I was pointing out that by trying to seem nice and cuddly HI election officials are breaking their own election laws.

It took almost 3 months before we got my Tutu's death certificate.

I seriously doubt that anyone will challenge Mrs. Dunham's vote here.

wow...I can't believe that some of you here are discussing (and debating) if her vote should count......


Just.....damn.

Wouldn't public acknowledgment by a family member and Presidential candidate seem like sufficient proof?

I'm guessing that law is written that way for all the times when the election officials would have no idea that a particular voter had died. In this case, it's pretty clear they know she died.

I don't care what they do with this particular vote. [ETA: this sounds really harsh. I mean, I have no real preference about how Hawaii handles it, not that I'm not sad for the Obama family that they lost their grandma.] It's not as if Hawaii is suddenly going to swing to McCain. But it'd be a pretty dangerous precedent to set, unless you wanted to change the law to say as long a voter is alive to request the absentee ballot, the vote will count.

ETA: I mean it honors her legacy either way: they count the vote she wanted to cast or they honor the laws her grandson will want upheld. It's unsentimental to disregard the vote, but it's apparently what the law requires if they know she is dead.

Again, it doesn't matter and I don't really care because HI isn't going to swing anyways, but what's the point in having election laws if you can ignore them at will? Following election laws tends to be something Democrats get real excited about (and it's a good thing to care about), but you can't selectively enforce them just because it's a sob story.

I would strongly think otherwise. It doesn't say that a Hawaii citizen must present the evidence, and there are certainly plenty of people in this country crazy enough to do so despite the fact that one vote in HI means literally nothing to this election.

The presidential election, anyway.

However, our ballots also contained heated races for mayor, the rail issue, and whether we need another Con Con.

Her vote may mean nothing to you, but it does for me and my family.