I was at the Salt Lake County (UT) election offices on Friday and they told me the most interesting story. An elderly man came in to vote in early voting in the primary election. Because of the party nomination process used in Utah, there are only primaries in non-partisan races and in cases where incumbents face strong challengers who fared well in the party caucus meeting. The man lived in a precinct where there were no non-partisan races on the ballot and there were no Democratic party primary races. (I too, live in one of these precincts).

The man looked crestfallen and told the poll workers, “I have terminal cancer; I will be dead before the general election. I just wanted to vote one last time.”

The election workers were quick to come up with a solution. They let him cast a provisional ballot in the Republican primary. His vote won’t count–he isn’t eligible–but he left the polling place very happy.