Zadie Thompson, Orlando, FL

At Issue:

The last election wheelchair-bound centenarian Zadie Thompson voted in was in 1964. However, the issues at stake in this upcoming presidential election were important enough to Thompson to join a line of voters wrapped around the polling station at Washington Park Branch Library in Orlando to cast an early ballot in October.She articulated her motivations in one simple desire: “Change,”[1] she told the Orlando Sentinel when asked why she was voting.

Excerpt:

As Florida ushered in early voting Monday, 103-year-old Zadie Thompson cast her ballot for the first time since she voted for President Johnson in 1964.

Thompson sat in her wheelchair in front of the Washington Park Branch Library in Orlando, where a line of voters wrapped the building and cars circled the parking lot as if patrolling a mall at Christmastime. When asked why she was voting, the Barack Obama supporter cast her crystalline blue eyes to the distance and quietly said: "Change."