LAKE CITY, SC (WBTW) – Poll workers at J. Paul Truluck Magnet School say people of all voter-eligible ages, from 18 to 101, cast their ballots on Tuesday. News13 spoke with one voter, 96-year-old Mable Lemmon, who has been voting in every election since 1965, when she gained the right to vote.
Due to racial discrimination in the U.S., black Americans, including Lemmon, didn’t have suffrage until President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. When asked how many times she has voted in her lifetime, Lemmon replied “ever since we could.” Lemmon was in her thirties when she first voted. She says voting “feels good” especially since there was a time when she was denied the right to participate in elections. She says she takes her civic duty of voting very seriously and plans to continue exercising her right.
“I like to [vote] because I like to help people. And I live in Lake City. That’s my home,” she said. “Feels good to me. Because I remember a time when we could not [vote]. I wouldn’t miss this for nothing in the world.”
Lemmon says she likes Election Day and hopes the candidates she voted for will soon represent her in Lake City.
