102 year old women, born the year of the last Pandemic, have been showing how this voting thing’s done in the United States.
Images of two of them have gone viral in recent weeks.
The first came from Beatrice Lumpkin, with a photo of her dropping her ballot in a local post box in Chicago, while wearing a hazmat suit, shared across social media early last month.
She’s voted for 80 years, never missing an election. And she certainly wasn’t going to miss this one.
Her moment was captured by the Chicago Teachers Union and went viral. It’s an image that highlights so much about this election: the mail-in voting, the determination to get heard, the role women’s votes will play, and of course making it all happen during a Pandemic.
“When I was born, women couldn’t vote,” Bea told local CBS Radio Station in October, explaining why it was so important for her to take part.
But that’s not all:
“It’s the most important election of my lifetime,” she said. “The very future of democracy is on the line.”
Asked what she’d say to Trump, given he’s pushed doubt about the mail-in process, Bea’s response is priceless.
“Well, if I had the chance, there would be a whole lot I could say to President Trump.”
Meanwhile, another voting 102 woman has gone viral in the past couple of weeks, getting former President Barack Obama’s attention.
This time it was Ora Smith from South Carolina, with the image of her voting tweeted by her nephew Quentin Youmas. “If she can do it, you can too,” he said.
Youmas has since gone on to tweet that he was able to share with his aunt all the love that they have received for the photo. He was also able to thank Obama, who tweeted that: “102 never looked better! Grateful for all the folks like your great aunt who continue to show up and vote in this important election.”
Youmans described his Great Aunt as a “true patriot” with Good Morning America. “This is what America is about.”
In interviews since the photo went viral, Smith said she voted for Joe Biden because she thinks they need to change presidents.
“I hope he does a good job. Things were pretty good until this other man got there.”
Smith, who’s grandmother was a slave, has experienced wars, the great depression and racial segregation in her lifetime. She’s also encountered various forms of voter suppression: as such, she’s always been determined to cast a ballot, when she could.