94-Year-Old Woman Travels Over 600 Miles To Vote

Mildred Madison, 94, wasn’t about to let anyone suppress her vote.

The Michigan resident told CNN that she didn’t receive her absentee ballot, so she decided to vote early and in person. To do so, she had to travel more than 600 miles — 300 each way — in order to cast her ballot.

Madison, who lives in Detroit, has been staying with her son, Julian, in Zion, Illinois since September of last year, when her health began to fail. Once the coronavirus pandemic began early this year, she decided to remain with her son. In this circumstance, Madison had requested her ballot to be sent to Illinois, but when it didn’t come, she wanted to make sure she’d be able to vote before time was up.

“I said I had better go back to Detroit and make sure that I vote,” Madison told CNN Monday (October 19). “I’m glad I did because I haven’t seen a ballot yet.”

CNN reports that they reached out to the Detroit Department of elections but has not yet heard back.

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In Michigan, more than 1.3 million people have already cast their votes, according to Catalist data.

There’s still a chance Madison’s ballot may show up in the mail, however she didn’t want to take any chances.

Madison and her son left for Detroit at around 6:30 a.m. on October 12 and made it to Detroit’s City Hall just before noon. The drive is approximately 330 miles each way, and they did it all in one day.

“At least I made it,” Madison said while laughing, according to CNN. “I made it and voted for the people I wanted to vote for, and I hope they win. But I felt satisfied that I was not going to miss voting.”

To Madison, who wore a mask reading “vote” to the polls, participating in her civic duty is something that’s very important to her.

“I’ve been voting in every election, whether it was city, state, county or national for the last 72 years,” she said.

Michigan is considered a battleground state whose electoral votes could tip the election in favor of one or the other candidates. Donald Trump won the state in 2016.