Former President Jimmy Carter, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday, cast his ballot in the 2024 election by mail. The Carter Center confirmed this information in a statement. Carter, who has been residing in hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, voted just two weeks after his milestone birthday.
According to his son, Chip Carter, the former president had the upcoming election on his mind. Chip Carter mentioned that his father expressed his desire to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris.
Georgia has been experiencing a surge in voter turnout since early voting commenced on Tuesday. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reported that nearly 460,000 registered voters had already cast their ballots by Wednesday afternoon, either in-person or through absentee voting.
Despite Carter's advanced age and health condition, his vote will be counted even if he is no longer alive by Election Day on November 5. The Georgia election rules stipulate that once an absentee ballot is received by local election officials, it is considered as having been voted at that moment.
It is worth noting that the rules regarding the validity of early votes in the event of a voter's death before Election Day vary by state. This issue gained prominence in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the number of deaths was escalating.
This story has been corrected to clarify that the first two days of early voting in Georgia were Tuesday and Wednesday, not Monday and Tuesday.
