Former president Jimmy Carter casts early ballot in Georgia

Former president Jimmy Carter, who had said he wanted to live long enough to vote in this year’s presidential election, cast an early ballot Wednesday in his home state of Georgia, according to the Carter Center.

Carter, who turned 100 on Oct. 1, has been in hospice care for more than a year and a half, and had reportedly slipped into poorer health after the loss of his wife, Rosalynn, last November.

But his grandson said last month that Carter was talking more, buoyed by the newly launched campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, and that he expressed a desire to live long enough to vote for her.

“He said he didn’t care about [turning 100]. It’s just a birthday. He said he cared about voting for Kamala Harris,” James Earl “Chip” Carter III said in an interview with The Washington Post last month, referring to his grandfather.

“He does not believe Donald Trump should be president again,” Chip Carter added.

Early voting in Georgia began Tuesday. In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly won the state, flipping it for the Democrats for the first time since 1992.

A Carter Center spokesman declined to say who Jimmy Carter voted for, citing a secret ballot, but pointed to his grandson’s past statements.

Carter, who served one term in the White House from 1977 to 1981, became the first former U.S. president to live to 100. His hometown of Plains, Ga., threw elaborate festivities to mark the occasion this month, but Carter did not attend.

Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan contributed to this report.