WorldOctober 16, 2024

Jimmy Carter, at 100, votes by mail for the 2024 election, fulfilling his wish to support Kamala Harris. Despite being in hospice care, the former president remains politically engaged.

AP News, Associated Press
FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter greets attendees as he departs the funeral service for his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., Nov. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool, File)
FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter greets attendees as he departs the funeral service for his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., Nov. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool, File)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chip Carter, son of former President Jimmy Carter, speaks with reporters after a naturalization ceremony for one hundred people to become U.S. citizens in honor of his father's 100th birthday Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Plains, Ga. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Chip Carter, son of former President Jimmy Carter, speaks with reporters after a naturalization ceremony for one hundred people to become U.S. citizens in honor of his father's 100th birthday Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Plains, Ga. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)ASSOCIATED PRESS

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy Carter cast his ballot in the 2024 election 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 Oct. 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.’”

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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 Monday. Nearly 460,000 had voted in-person or cast absentee ballots by Tuesday afternoon, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

Carter's vote should count even if he's no longer alive by Election Day on Nov. 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.”

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