A 103-year-old woman from Florida shares her election story. Here is her story

APOPKA, Fla – On a journey through 10 decades of voting rights, 103-year-old Lillie Mae King Harper of Plymouth, Florida, made her way to the polls in Apopka on Election Day.

“I feel good, it makes me feel good,” Harper said.

Ms. Harper – an African American from the Deep South – cast her vote in the 2024 presidential election, a powerful demonstration of resilience, progress and the unbreakable bond she shares with a democratic right she first exercised as former President Barack Obama ran for office in 2008.

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Harper was born in Georgia in 1921 and grew up in a time when segregation was the law of the land and voting rights for African Americans were almost nonexistent.

“Yeah. Man, oh yeah. I've seen a lot,” Harper said.

She vividly remembers the hardships of Jim Crow and how they once could only dream of having a say in the country's future.

Over the years, she has been a silent witness to history – the Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the election of the first black president and now a host of candidates running for the highest office in the land.

For Mary Harper, her mother is an inspiration.

“It was to encourage others, the young people, to get out and vote,” Mary said. “Make it count!”

When she cast her vote on Tuesday, her voice, although gentle, had an unmistakable power as she spoke of the importance of “showing up,” a message to everyone.

“I would tell them to come out and vote,” Harper said.

In an election that promises to shape America's future, Ms. Harper remains a powerful symbol of a past that should never be forgotten and a present in which her 103-vote vote still counts.

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