A 99-year-old Florida woman has lived through 24 presidential elections, but chose this year’s contest to cast her first ballot.
Rosie Lewis, of Fort Myers, who received her ballot in the mail, got some help from a family friend to register and credits the election of President Obama in 2008 with inspiring her to cast her first vote, NBC 2 reports.
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"I said I'm going to vote if the Lord spares my life this time," Lewis told the station. "I made it up to my mind to vote."
"She completely understands what she just did," said her grandson, Nelson Lewis. "My grandmother never forgets anything."
Rosie Lewis was 7 years old when the 19th Amendment passed, which gave women the right to vote. Lewis was in her 50s by the time Jim Crow laws were abolished.
Her grandson said that helps explain why she waited this long to vote.
"She was already set in her ways, and wasn't really thinking about politics," he said.
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