On what would become one of his final days on Earth, James Wendel Williams heaved his too-thin body to City Hall in defiance of the cancer that had left him largely homebound. He was determined to cast a ballot in the 2020 election.

“I think the state of things is cause of concern for all of us. That’s why I wanted to be sure to get here and vote,” he told a photojournalist who happened upon the scene.

When Williams found out earlier this year that his colon cancer had returned, he made the decision not to pursue further treatment and eventually to enter hospice care...

Politics was not Williams’s entire life. His family was.

He was a Democrat but not a partisan, said his son David.

Nonetheless, Williams felt President Trump was toxic. He was especially angry over the president’s suggestion that he would not accept the results of an election if he lost.

If only he could stay alive long enough to do something about it.

By the time September came around, Williams thought if he could make it to the end of the month, he would be able to cast an early vote by mail, which Michigan election law makes accessible to everyone. Debra Horner, his daughter-in-law... was able to arrange to have his ballot waiting at City Hall on the very first day of early voting, so he could fill it out in the car and drop it off right away.

“He was really happy to tell people he had lived long enough to vote,” David remembered.

He died eight days later.

After he was gone, Williams’s family learned his final vote would not be counted Michigan law. Votes are tallied on Election Day in the state, not as they arrive. Because Williams died before Election Day, his vote would be invalidated.

His son, David, took a long, deep breath when he heard.

“Here’s the thing: It pisses me off that it doesn’t count. But it really doesn’t diminish what it meant to him or to us,” said David.

“It’s not that he thought his vote was going to change the election. He believed it was important as an example to his children and grandchildren,” he added. “The way you use your energy, particularly when you don’t have much left, that is a very true reflection of what you really care about.”

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