Florida's centenarian voters still mail in their ballots, state records show

What the record shows

Florida’s statewide voter registration records list more than 5,698 people whose ages have passed 100 and who remain active, registered voters. That figure, reported by Fresh Take Florida and WUFT News ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, does not break out how many of those voters live in Levy County or along the Nature Coast. No Cedar Key or Levy County resident is named in the report. But the pattern it documents - voters who have cast ballots since the Roosevelt administration still mailing them in today - applies to every county’s rolls, including this one’s, and it says something about what keeps rural and small-town voters engaged decades after their first election.

Who the state’s oldest voters are

The report profiles six Floridians between 103 and 111 years old, interviewed by Fresh Take Florida across South Florida, Northeast Florida and the Gulf Coast near Sarasota. Alice Lesko, 111, of Palm Springs in Palm Beach County, mailed her ballot this cycle despite failing eyesight and difficulty signing her name; she remembers voting for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Virginia Henderson, 103, of Middleburg in Clay County - where President Trump won 70% of the vote in 2024 - said she still approves of him. Ruth Manger, 103, of Bradenton, is blind and follows the news by radio; she voted Republican. Edith Hirsch, 104, of Boynton Beach, a Holocaust survivor from Germany, voted early as a self-described “proud Democrat.” Eugene Martin, 103, of Lake Worth Beach, a World War II veteran registered with no party affiliation, declined to say how he voted this year.

None of the six live in Levy County or on the Nature Coast, and the state dataset cited does not localize the centenarian count by county. What it does establish, on the record, is that Florida’s oldest registered voters - wherever they live - are not a uniform bloc and are not disengaging.

Divided, but still voting

The voters quoted split along familiar lines on Tuesday’s midterms, which determined control of Congress and served as an early read on how voters view the Trump administration’s handling of the economy, the war in Iran and immigration enforcement. Henderson, a registered Republican, said of Trump: “I think the man was handed a big plate of things. And he’s trying.” Hirsch, a Democrat, said she is a fan of former President Joe Biden. Martin said he has voted for candidates of both parties over his lifetime and that he respects “the presidency as an institution,” comparing it to saluting a military uniform rather than the person wearing it.

Several voiced concern about the broader state of American civic life. Henderson, recalling her disappointment in President Nixon’s resignation amid the Watergate scandal, said: “You can’t believe half of what you read or hear, not unless you see it with your own eye.” Martin said he worries that technology, including artificial intelligence, is eroding younger voters’ ability to read, write and reason - a shift he called “a massive change.” Lesko said she struggles to trust what candidates say about themselves.

The message to younger voters

Despite the skepticism, every voter interviewed urged younger Floridians to keep voting. Manger advised researching candidates carefully “to help our country, to help the state, help the county or whatever local politics you’re talking about.” Hirsch called voting simply “the right thing.” Henderson, citing a lesson passed down from her grandfather, put it directly: “You don’t vote, you don’t have a voice.”

No local candidate, race or county-level data was part of the report. For Nature Coast readers, the relevant fact is the statewide registration figure itself - more than 5,698 Floridians over 100 remain on the rolls - a number that includes voters in every county, even if none from Levy County were named in this account.