Former President Jimmy Carter has the opportunity to fulfill one of his final wishes as Georgia kicks off its first day of early voting.
Georgia is considered one of the seven key swing states in the 2024 race, as Donald Trump tries to win it back after losing to Joe Biden in 2020. A record-breaking turn out saw more than 250,000 voters cast ballots as of 4 p.m. ET Tuesday in the Peach State – nearly double 2020 turnout.
Carter – who celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1 in Georgia where he resides in hospice care – told his family he was hoping to live long enough to vote in this election. …CONTINUE READING
‘I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,’ Carter told his son Chip, his grandson Jason Carter told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Jimmy Carter – who celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1 in Georgia where he resides in hospice care – told his family he was hoping to live long enough to vote in this election
More than 250,000 voters cast ballots on first day of early voting in Georgia
Polling numbers have been positive of late for Harris, with numbers suggesting she could improve on Biden’s marginal victory in the Peach State four years ago.
A Georgia judge on Tuesday temporarily halted a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count ballots in the November 5 election, in a defeat for Donald Trump, whose Republican allies pushed the change after he lost the battleground state in 2020.
‘Election superintendents in Georgia have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results,’ Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in the filing obtained by CNN.
‘Consequently, no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.’
Carter – the first American president to reach the century mark – was able to watch a flyover of four F-18 jets and several vintage planes that graced the skies over Plains, Georgia as part of the town’s celebrations to celebrate his special day, per CBS News.
Jason Carter said his grandfather is ‘more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza.’
‘He’s doing okay,’ Jason said of the former president just two weeks before he turned 100.
‘I mean he’s been in hospice for over 19 months now and he has really physically diminished and can’t do much on his own, but he is emotionally engaged and still having experiences and laughing, loving.’
He had previously said that the 39th president was ‘no longer awake every day’ while receiving hospice care.
The 39th president’s grandson said he is ‘more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza’
Carter was taken into hospice care in February 2023, just a few months before his beloved wife of 77-years, Rosalynn, died in November 2023
The Democrat is the oldest living ex-president and was in office from 1977 to 1981.
His family announced he had been taken into hospice care in February 2023 and many assumed this meant he was near death.
He has been receiving end of life care at his home in Plains for 17 months, including through mourning the death of his beloved wife of 77-years, Rosalynn.
The former president was last seen at her funeral in Georgia in November last year.
Rosalynn Carter died on November 19 at the age of 96. She and Carter were the longest married presidential couple.
