ATLANTA — Some voters are going to great lengths to make sure they can participate in this election -- including booking flights.
The 2024 election with all be Lydia Hill’s first election.
She’s 19 years old and legally a resident of Georgia.
Even though she is working for a ministry in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she started early to make sure she wasn’t going to miss her shot.
“It’s a very big deal,” Hill told Channel 2′s Candace McCowan.
But the absentee ballot she requested, never showed up.
RELATED STORIES:
- Georgia man arrested for making bomb threat to poll workers ahead of election day
- Georgia Election: State Supreme Court reverses extension for thousands of mail-in votes
- Georgia Election: Fulton DA orders majority of staff to work from home following election
“I was calling up the office multiple times saying, ‘Please, I need to speak to somebody, I’m out of town.’ And I kept on getting directed to a voicemail,” Hill said.
And that’s when she knew she had to take action.
“When I found out this opportunity might be taken away from me, I thought, ‘I can’t. I have to get there in person’” Hill said. “Thursday night I was looking at flights -- $500, $700. I was like, ‘I can’t do that.’ Luckily, we have a friend who works at the airport and got me a buddy pass.”
After landing at 6 a.m. Friday, she took a picture with her mother after she cast her ballot at an early voting location.
“I felt like very, very proud. It meant a lot to me to be able to voice my opinion. I can now know either way it goes, I can share my opinions and my voice matters,” Hill said.