At the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, Jason Carter said his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter, “can’t wait to vote for Kamala Harris.”

“Paw Paw is hanging in there,” Jason Carter said of his 99-year-old grandfather, who has been in home hospice care for over a year. “He is full of hope. And while his body may be weak tonight, his spirit is as strong as ever.”

Carter celebrates his 100th birthday on October 1, and two weeks later, on October 15, early voting begins in his home state of Georgia.

He intends to vote by mail, his grandson said. And in Georgia, his vote will still count even if he reaches the end of his life before Election Day.

In just two weeks, some states will begin mailing ballots to voters ahead of the November election. With the rise of early voting and mail-in voting over the past few decades, there have been cases where voters cast their ballots but died before Election Day.

Wendy Underhill, director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said different states are handling the situation very differently.

“They can choose to accept it. They can choose to reject it. Or states can remain silent on the issue,” she said.

In total, Spectrum News has identified at least 29 states where those votes would count. Nine states have laws that explicitly accept ballots from people who vote early but die before Election Day. Another 20 state election offices, including New York, Ohio and Texas, told Spectrum News they do not have such a law but would accept the votes.

On the other hand, ten states, including Wisconsin, have laws prohibiting the acceptance of such ballots. Five states, including North Carolina and Kentucky, have no such law but would not accept the ballots.

Three other states, including South Carolina, say it depends on the situation.

“Both strategies are completely explainable and rational, but each state has to decide for itself whether to say ‘yes,’ which is a valid vote, or ‘no,’ which is just about the votes of the people who are on our side on Election Day,” Underhill said.

According to the most recent census, the five states with the most people over the age of 65 are Maine, Florida, Vermont, West Virginia and Montana. In all five of these states, the votes of people who vote early and die before Election Day are counted.

Bernard Fraga, an associate professor of political science at Emory University, points out that it can be difficult for states to determine whether a voter has died within that time period.

“In the states where the verification process takes place long before Election Day, it would be pretty difficult to say we’re going to do a second round of verification just to make sure no one died,” he said.

To find this information, some election offices obtain records from their state’s health department or Social Security administration. Others check local obituaries or wait for news from family members of the deceased.

To make matters worse, mail-in ballots are removed from envelopes at different times in different states.

“At that point, the ballot box is no longer linked to the voter,” Underhill said. “You can’t get them out unless they’re still in the envelope, and you can’t get that envelope out unless you have proof that the person is dead.”

It’s difficult to estimate how many people vote early and then die before Election Day. Fraga said dead voters are unlikely to affect the election.

“When we think about the larger context of our democracy and the cases where individual voters can make a difference, it is actually the people who influence the outcome of an election who are not even trying to vote,” he said.

He said states could do more to make people aware of their eligibility to vote.

To find out if you are eligible to vote, go to USA.gov.