Carter’s voting family- He was anxious to vote for Harris

On October 1, Jimmy Carter, the longest-serving president in American history, celebrated his 100th birthday. Just a few days later, on the 16th, he exercised his voting rights once again, casting a mail-in ballot for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in early voting in Georgia.

Jason Carter, the chair of the Carter Center and grandson of the former president, shared that his grandfather has been receiving care in a hospice since February of last year. On the 16th, his grandfather voted by mail, with family members delivering the absentee ballot to a drop box at the courthouse in Americus, Georgia.

The Carter family noted that in recent weeks, Jimmy has downplayed the significance of turning 100, expressing instead that his main desire was to support Vice President Kamala Harris with his vote.

According to Georgia law, October 7 marked the first day for all counties to send out domestic mail-in ballots to registered voters. Election officials began mailing military and overseas ballots as early as September. Early in-person voting in the state commenced on the 15th, with regulators reporting record-high voter turnout.

While election officials are unsure when Carter cast his first vote, 1943 was a significant year when Georgia became the first state in the U.S. to lower the voting age to 18. At that time, Carter was just months shy of his 19th birthday.

In 1962, Carter entered politics as a newcomer and won a state senate seat by defeating an opponent embroiled in a voting fraud scandal. He later remarked that this incident was part of the motivation behind his and his wife Rosalynn Carter’s founding of the Carter Center after leaving the White House in 1981. Since then, he has focused on issues such as voter registration and campaign finance, prioritizing these during his early presidency and continuing his work globally as an election observer for the Carter Center post-presidency.

Records indicate that Carter has always been a reliable voter, participating regularly in general elections, primaries, and special elections. For over a decade, he has primarily utilized mail-in voting.

Georgia remains one of the most fiercely contested states in presidential elections, making it crucial for any candidate to secure its votes. During his presidency, Carter proposed the abolition of the Electoral College; had that idea been realized, the significance of Georgia’s electoral outcomes might have looked very different today.