In Virginia's case, her second vote would be valid since her first vote occurred before the vote even happen. I'd be interested in hearing Truman's reasoning on this since he keeps advising people that they can delete their votes and re-vote, I personally don't see how it is much different from editing your vote after 20 minutes (illegal).
In essence, I don't find that argument convincing. I think everyone is aware that editing one post is functionally different from deleting that post and making another (they are different functions of the forum software), and it requires a novel re-interpretation of "edit" to conclude otherwise. The precedent established in
Bacon King vs. Rpryor sets a very high bar for ballots cast during the voting period to be invalidated; if deleting your ballot and re-voting arguably violates the spirit of the law (I don't agree that it does, but that's not really relevant), it explicitly does not violate the letter of the law, and the Court has established that it will only invalidate ballots in the event of the latter.
Ultimately, the only way deleting your ballot and re-voting is illegal, is if we decide the word "edit" means something it has never before now been understood to mean. Barring an explicit legal prohibition against revotes, I don't see the grounds for discarding Pericles' ballot. I agree with you that Congress should correct this oversight with clarifying legislation, though as YE says, enforcement is likely to be difficult.
If we're not going to act, then we might as well remove the 20 minute editing rule and let people edit their votes throughout the course of the election.
Fair point.
