Good Question: 'Reply All': Hail Mary Passes & Absentee Ballots
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A lot of absentee voting is going on right now, so Norma Garfin asked: If you vote absentee, and die before Election Day, does it count?
It does not. And there's a system to catch those rare occurrences.
The Secretary of State's office has guidelines. When someone dies, the state Health Department and Federal Social Security Administration send information to the Statewide Voter Registration System. It's updated every other day. The local ballot boards use those updated lists on Election Day when they're counting those ballots. So if someone dies, that absentee ballot should be rejected.
There have been a couple of those crazy last second passes in the NFL lately. Rob Olsen from Edina wondered: Where and when was the term "Hail Mary Pass" coined?
It goes back at least to the 1930s, and Notre Dame. One of the school's players suggested saying a Hail Mary on a 4th-and-goal play. It worked. They scored a touchdown. They did the same thing a couple times, and after the game said: That Hail Mary play is the best play we've got.
It stayed in Catholic schools until a game with the Minnesota Vikings in Bloomington in 1975. The Dallas Cowboys' Roger Staubach threw a 50 yard pass to Drew Pearson for a last second touchdown. The Vikings lost. Post-game, Staubach called it a Hail Mary pass.
The term stuck.
