<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Frank Tanabe, a WW2 combat veteran who was also imprisoned in a Japanese-American internment camp, voted from what is sure to be his death bed.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">WHERE WILL YOU BE VOTING?</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of the New York Daily News at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://tinyurl.com/9odhr5m">http://tinyurl.com/9odhr5m</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><h1 class="story-header" itemprop="headline" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Photo of ailing 93-year-old WW2 vet casting what will likely be his last vote captures hearts online</span></h1><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A photograph of a 93-year-old World War II veteran casting what will likely be his last ballot has captured the hearts of tens of thousands of Internet users.</span></p><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The photo shows Frank Tanabe lying in a hospital bed at home as his daughter Barbara Tanabe helps him fill out his absentee ballot.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A half-million people saw the picture on the website Reddit after his grandson posted it Thursday, making it one of the most popular items on the social media network.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“True Patriotism,” was the top rated comment on the post. “This is America. Amen,” was next, followed by “Thank you, Citizen.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Doctors diagnosed Tanabe with an inoperable tumor in his liver two months ago. He’s been in hospice care for the past three weeks at his daughter’s home. His condition has been deteriorating, and he’s been speaking little lately.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He was determined to vote regardless, eagerly asking when the ballot would be arriving in the mail, his daughter said. She kept telling him, “don’t worry, it’s coming.” He filled it out immediately when it landed in the mailbox Wednesday.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Barbara Tanabe read aloud the names of the candidates to her dad. He either nodded “yes” to the names or shook his head “no.” She filled in the boxes on his behalf, following his instructions even when he didn’t pick the people she wanted.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There were some that were OK, but there were others where I said, ‘Dad, are you sure?”’ she said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But he knew what he was doing. He kept up on the issues, reading newspapers regularly until only recently, she said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tanabe volunteered to join the Army from behind barbed wire at the Tule Lake internment camp in California. He was pulled out of college at the University of Washington and taken to the camp when President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered 110,000 Japanese-Americans detained and isolated after the start of the war with Japan.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Army assigned Tanabe to the Military Intelligence Service, a classified unit whose members were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal last year.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Noah Tanabe, the grandson who posted the photo online, said he thinks about his grandfather every time he votes.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s hard to imagine — after his family business is torched, his family imprisoned, and denied the opportunity to finish his college education — he volunteered to serve. I don’t know if I would have done the same thing, but we are all very proud of him,” he said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The family has been surprised and gratified by the online reaction to the photo, Barbara Tanabe said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think he feels like joining the Army, going to the camp, fighting in the war, and fighting discrimination — these were all things he did so that we have this precious right to vote,” she said. “For so many people to express their heartfelt tribute to my father was really, really heartwarming for us.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Several Reddit commenters asked whether Tanabe’s vote would be counted if he passed away before Election Day.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Glenn Takahashi, Honolulu election administrator, said absentee ballots cast by voters who later die become invalid if the state Department of Health notifies elections officials of the death before Election Day. To void a ballot when that happens, officials have to be able to sort through tens of thousands of ballots to find the one in question. This is not always practical, and so the ballot is counted if it isn’t.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Barbara Tanabe said her father, a quiet, unassuming man, would wonder what the fuss over the photo was about. But he’d be thrilled it encouraged others to vote, she said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That would be the ultimate honor for him,” she said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">----------------</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In this Oct. 17 photo Frank Tanabe gets help from his daughter Barbara Tanabe, left, to fill out his absentee ballot in Honolulu while his wife Setsuko Tanabe sits in the foreground.</span></div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><img src="cid:9991D2A7-101E-4794-B1F9-ED9A8CE6D23A" alt="vote23n-1-web.jpg" id="9991D2A7-101E-4794-B1F9-ED9A8CE6D23A" width="635" height="365"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "> </p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."</div><div><br></div><div>- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>