Plains: Jimmy Carter cast his ballot in the 2024 election on Wednesday. The former president voted by mail, the Carter Center confirmed in a statement. It happened barely two weeks after Carter celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1 at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he's been living in hospice care.
His son Chip Carter said before the family gathering that his father had this election very much in mind. “He's plugged in,” Chip Carter told The Associated Press. “I asked him two months ago if he was trying to live to be 100, and he said, No, I'm trying to live to vote for Kamala Harris.'”
The Carter Center's brief statement said it had no more details to share. Georgia's registered voters have been turning out in record numbers since early voting began Tuesday. Nearly 4,60,000 had voted in person or cast absentee ballots by Wednesday afternoon, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.
Carter's vote should count even if he's no longer alive by Election Day on November 5. Robert Sinners, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, noted that Georgia election rules state that when an absentee ballot is received by local election officials “it shall be deemed to have been voted then and there.”
Rules vary by state on whether early votes still count if the people who cast them die before Election Day. The issue took on greater significance in 2020, when COVID-19 deaths were soaring.
Who is Jimmy Carter?
Carter, who has lived longer than any US president in history, celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1. Carter, a Democrat, served a single term as president from January 1977 to January 1981. His decades of humanitarian work after leaving office, including the promotion of human rights and alleviating poverty in countries around the world, earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
His birthday, which comes 19 months after he entered hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, is being marked by the broadcast of a tribute concert by stars of country, rock and gospel music recorded at Atlanta's Fox Theatre last month. The concert raised more than $1 million towards the international programs of the Carter Center, which he founded with his wife, Rosalynn Carter. The former president plans to tune in to the concert on Georgia Public Broadcasting, according to his grandson Jason Carter.
(With inputs from agency)
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