The World War II Veteran Who Voted from His Deathbed Has Died

Irene Tanabe/AP
Alexander Abad-Santos 612 Views Oct 25, 2012

Frank Tanabe the 93-year-old World War II veteran who became Reddit-famous last week for casting the last vote of his life on his deathbed, died in Hawaii on Wednesday. We're pretty sure his vote will count.  It's nothing sentimental, it's just that invalidating someone's vote because of death this close to the election is just really, really tough. "Honolulu elections officials say Frank Tanabe's vote will be counted unless they receive his death certificate before the Nov. 6 election and they're able to find his ballot from among the tens of thousands of ballots mailed in," reports the AP. Tens of thousands. That will make the redditors who made Tanabe into a hero pretty happy—Tanabe's grandson had posted a picture (above) of Tanabe on his deathbed filling out his absentee ballot last Friday. It has since been viewed more than 600,000 times. So far there aren't any posts from his grandson announcing his death. The AP said that Tanabe's family members are going to keep his vote private, meaning we won't know if Tanabe was a Romney or Obama supporter (Hawaii leans Democrat). "Barbara Tanabe said it's not important who her father voted for — it's the voting itself that makes a difference," adds the AP.

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