The law of unintended consequences strikes again!

Ross and John had their minds blown this morning by an email from listener Peter.

Dear Ross and John,
If you vote early and pass away before election day, should your vote count?

“My gosh, I hadn’t thought about that,” Ross said. “Dead people have voted in this election!”

4.05 million Australians have already voted, compared to a total of 2.55 million pre-pollers at the same stage of the 2016 federal election.

Early voting opened April 29, giving those 4.05 million people 19 days to vote and… well, die.

Based on figures that about 158,500 people die per year in Australia, our (extremely rudimentary) mathematics — which admittedly don’t factor in children nor the propensity of older Australians to vote early — tell us there’s likely around 600 votes from deceased people being counted.