Former president Jimmy Carter, 100, votes in US election
Former president Jimmy Carter recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Picture: AP
Former president Jimmy Carter has cast his ballot in the 2024 US election.
The ex-president voted by post, the Carter Centre confirmed in a statement.
It happened barely two weeks after Mr Carter celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1 at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he has been living in hospice care.
His son Chip Carter said before the family gathering that his father had this election very much in mind.
“He’s plugged in,” Chip Carter told the Associated Press. “I asked him two months ago if he was trying to live to be 100, and he said, ‘No, I’m trying to live to vote for Kamala Harris’.”
The Carter Centre’s brief statement said it had no more details to share.
Georgia’s registered voters have been turning out in record numbers since early voting began on Tuesday.
Video of Jimmy Carter does not show him casting ballot
- Published on October 16, 2024 at 15:09
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"WATCH: A viral video shows 100-year-old former President Jimmy Carter casting his vote for Kamala Harris while lying in bed. #jimmycarter #kamalaharris," says a post shared October 15, 2024 on X and Instagram.
Similar posts spread across X and other platforms as early voting opened October 15 in Georgia, where Carter has been living in hospice care for more than a year.
Some posts shared the clip to push unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud or Democrats using elderly voters to rig elections.
"That's elder abuse taking Jimmy Carter to the polls to vote," says one post on X. "He don't know he's alive is this how Dems go to nursing homes and get elders to vote when they can’t tell you their name or speak. It's like digging up the dead to vote. #DesperateDems."
But the video of Carter in a wheelchair is unrelated to his participation in the 2024 election, a knife-edge race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump where the vote in Georgia, a swing state, could tilt the result.
"President Carter voted by mail today. This footage is not from today," Matthew De Galan, press liaison for the Carter family and vice president of communications for the Carter Center, the nonprofit the former president founded after he left office, told AFP in an October 16 email.
A reverse image search reveals CBS News shared the footage October 1, when Carter became the first president to turn 100 (archived here).
"Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends in his backyard in Plains, Georgia. CBS News was there as he was wheeled outside, beneath the shade of his trees, to witness a military flyover with four fighter jets," the network wrote on X.
Carter, a one-term president who occupied the White House from 1977 to 1981, submitted his mail-in ballot October 16, the Carter Center said in a statement.
The wife of his son, Chip Carter, dropped his ballot off at a drop box at a nearby courthouse, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The younger Carter told the newspaper his father "absolutely" voted for Harris.
The centenarian had told his family earlier in the year that he aspired to live long enough to vote for Harris and help defeat Trump, the outlet reported.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the US election here.
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