Jimmy Carter casts early ballot for Kamala Harris

Former President Jimmy Carter (D) cast an early vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia on Wednesday, according to his son Chip Carter.

The mail-in ballot was dropped off at Sumter County Courthouse in Americus, near Plains where Carter lived for many years, by his daughter-in-law Becky Payne.

“I think he feels good,” the former president’s son Chip Carter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was a good morning for him and good for us that he got it done.”

The Carter Center reported that he had voted but didn't say who he voted for.

"Never voted for a Republican"

His son insisted that his vote was for Harris, however. He “never voted for a Republican in his life,” Chip Carter said.

Carter turned 100 years old on October 1, the first U.S. president to become a centenarian and the oldest living president in history.

He went into hospice care in February 2023 and his wife Rosalyn died in November, but he has seemed to do better in recent months.

He said he wanted to live long enough to vote for Harris, and he has now done so.

"Virtually no change"

"It’s been 19 months since he went into hospice, and he’s really in the same situation. And all of us are amazed by the longevity of this period for him, this period of reflection for us and for everyone else. But there’s still been virtually no change at all. And we’re still just excited to have as much of him as we do," grandson Jason Carter said at the time of his birthday.

It has understandably been difficult for Carter to be without his wife of 77 years.

“After 77 years of marriage … I just think none of us really understand what it’s like for him right now,” Jason Carter said. “We have to embrace that fact, that there’s things about the spirit that you just can’t understand.”

Jason also said that the former president isn't always awake when visitors come to see him.

He is mentally engaged in the world and aware of what's going on around him when he is awake, his grandson said.

Jason Carter is a former Georgia state senator and was a gubernatorial candidate in 2014.