In an early Election Day tweet, vice presidential hopeful Tim Kaine admitted that, despite his best efforts to be first in line to vote, there was one person ahead of him at the polling place this morning: a 99-year-old woman.
“Looks like I need to get used to being number two!” he mused.
I wanted to be first at my polling place, but 99-year-old Minerva Turpin beat me to it. Looks like I need to get used to being number two! pic.twitter.com/9YvWOjuKUe
— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) November 8, 2016
Kaine told CNN he arrived to vote at 5:45 am, but the senior citizen had already beaten him.
It’s easy to read a message about the potentially historic nature of this election into his quip: The possibility that Clinton will win the election — with a man as her “number two” — has been particularly meaningful for women who were born before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified and gave women the right to vote.
The website IWaited96Years.com has been collecting photos and stories of these women, and, as Vox’s Emily Crockett wrote today, it’s a moving testament to the progress women’s rights have made in this country in fewer than a hundred years.
