Dying woman's vote won't count

Clinton says story should inspire others to make their votes count

By Kevin Woster, Journal staff | Thursday, May 15, 2008

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Florence Steen was laid to rest Thursday, two weeks after casting a once-in-a-lifetime vote for Hillary Clinton that, turns out, South Dakota law will not allow.

And just a few hours after the graveside ceremony for Steen late Thursday morning, Clinton said during a campaign stop in Rapid City that state law should be changed to prevent the loss of such votes in the future.

"I think a legally cast vote, especially one as meaningful as the one cast by Florence Steen, should definitely be counted," Clinton told the Journal. "It meant a lot to her. It meant a lot to me. It was an inspirational story to me and to a lot of people."

The story, told in the Journal last Saturday, was of an 88-year-old former ranch wife from Faith who gathered strength enough to cast a deathbed vote for Clinton. Steen, who was born in 1920 seven months before women won the right to vote, was dying of congestive heart failure and was in hospice care through Rapid City Regional Hospital. Yet she managed to rally enough April 29 to study and mark an absentee ballot brought by her daughter, Kathy Krause.

Clinton referred to Steen's inspirational action Tuesday night, after a runaway primary win over Barack Obama in West Virginia. Clinton also noted solemnly that Steen had died on Mother's Day.

And that death, coming more than three weeks before the June 3 South Dakota primary, nullified the vote that Krause said her mother waited for her entire life. Yet Krause said Thursday evening that her mother's vote would still have lasting impact and meaning, even if it won't count in the official election tally.

"My mother left this world believing that her vote counted and that she had finally had a chance to vote for a woman, and did," Krause said. "And not just that, but she got to vote for a very intelligent, very capable woman, someone who gets knocked down and is tough enough to keep going, just like the women of my mother's generation."

Like Clinton, Krause believes the law should be changed to count the votes of people who mark valid absentee ballots but die before election day.

"Absolutely, it should be changed," Krause said. "If we're going to allow absentee voting and accept those ballots, then they should count."

Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson agrees, even though she found herself in the uncomfortable position of setting Steen's ballot aside as invalid.

"It's not whether we agree or disagree with the law," she said. "It's just what we have to do."

Clinton said Steen's inspirational effort to vote should motivate those who don't take the right so seriously.

"It should inspire people who are just a car ride away, or absentee ballot away, to make sure they make use of their right to vote," Clinton said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com.