An 81-year-old Georgia woman voted for the first time in Covington on Oct. 16, one day after early voting began in Newton County.
Betty Cartledge told "Good Morning America" she and her late husband had never voted before, but this year, things changed. She said her husband died in April 2023, and now that she was on her own, she had started noticing the high cost of living more and more, and felt motivated to vote for change.
As early voting starts in Georgia, judge rules to guard against rogue election officialsWhen Cartledge's niece Wanda Moore suggested she help her register to vote, Cartledge said she jumped at the chance.
"I can't read and write," Cartledge explained. "I just thought, well, then I can't go in and do that. I ain't got nobody to help me. But now I have, I got somebody to help me, to read it, to make sure I'm doing the right thing."
Cartledge and Moore both voted at Covington Mills Precinct at LifePointe Church of Nazarene, and Cartledge said it went smoothly.
"We went in and she told the lady I couldn't read and write, and she told her what to do," Cartledge recalled. "And I went over there, and I done it on my own. I done my own voting. I had nobody tell me who to vote for or what. She just showed me, read everything to me, and then I voted."
"I thought it was amazing," Cartledge added. "I just feel so good doing something for America."
Nearly 9 million have cast ballots as early voting starts across the USMoore, 65, said she has been voting in every presidential election since 1976 but accompanying her aunt to vote for the first time turned out to be the most meaningful voting experience for her so far.
"It was very, very touching because I think that's something that she had wanted to do all of her life but never had the opportunity to," Moore told "GMA." "And once she got the opportunity to, she thought it was a great, great thing, and it was great watching her."
Both Cartledge and Moore said they encourage fellow Americans to vote, even if they are unable to read or write like Cartledge or have any disability.
"Talk to [friends and family] and see if they'll help you out and go out there and do it. Do it for America. Do it for your country," Cartledge said, adding that it's "never, ever" too late to vote.
"It's very important for people that don't have the ability to read and write to know that their vote counts too. It's not an impossible thing," Moore said. "It's a very easy process, and all they have to do is have someone that will go with them and read to them and let them check their own boxes."
Cartledge said she hopes to vote again in the future.
"If I'm here next year, four years from now, I will be back," she said.
