90-year-old woman extends 7-decade voting streak

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Long lines at polling locations impacted many across the metro area Tuesday. But voters Channel 2's Berndt Petersen talked to said that wouldn't keep them from casting their vote.

Mattie Ruth Stone, 90, voted for the first time 70 years ago. Stone said she has never missed an election, voting in three dozen major elections.

Stone told Petersen she will never forget voting for Harry S. Truman.

"It felt grown up that I was able to do something that I wanted to, and help my country, maybe," Stone said.

Seventy years later, at a polling place in Cumming in Forsyth County, she was as committed as ever.

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"If you're just sitting at home and you haven't voted, you're lazy. I mean, she doesn't feel great. We've been to a heart doctor, and then we came to vote," Stone's friend, Linda Ledbetter, said.

Three weeks ago, Stone had a heart attack, but she was determined to make it to the polls on Election Day.

"So if she can get out and vote, just about everybody can get out and vote," Ledbetter said.

"I don't have an excuse to fuss about them if I don't go and vote," Stone said.

Cox Media Group