NORTH MIAMI, FLORIDA — Desiline Victor has voted in just three presidential elections in her 106 years, and all of those experiences have been memorable.
In 2008, the first time she was eligible to vote after obtaining her citizenship, she cast a ballot for the man who would become the country’s first black president.
Then, in 2012, Victor insisted that she vote in person. At age 101, she said it would likely be the last chance she had.
That year, Victor made multiple trips to the polls and waited in line for three hours in the hot Miami sun to cast a ballot. To honor her dedication, President Obama invited her to the 2013 State of the Union, and the North Miami Library officially named its polling location “The Desiline Victor Voting Wing.”
This year, with weeks to go until her 106th birthday, organizations in South Florida wanted to make Victor’s experience voting for the first woman president just as memorable — without the lines.
“We’re here to celebrate an incredible story of resilience and democracy.”
On Sunday afternoon, Victor rolled up in a stretch limo to the library’s parking lot, where hundreds of Floridians were dancing, eating, and rejoicing under tents. As her godson pushed her wheelchair toward a podium, local lawmakers and voting advocates were already singing her praise.
One by one, the black mayor and community leaders honored the woman whose story, they said, exemplifies the American Dream. Victor worked as a farmworker in Haiti for decades before emigrating to the United States at the age of 79. It was in this country that she offered a new life for her godson, Mathieu Pierre-Lewis, and that her grandson, Ralph, was born.
“She worked so hard to bring me here, and right now she’s a matron of the democracy,” her godson said, handing the microphone to his young son.
“Her legacy will continue to inspire the young children,” he said, excitedly reading a statement he’d prepared.
In a year of divisive, oftentimes hateful campaign rhetoric and renewed attention on barriers to voting across the country, Victor’s story was a much-needed bright spot for many South Florida residents. Not only would a woman born ten years before U.S. women had the right to vote be able to cast a ballot for the first female president; her story was also instrumental in convincing Florida’s GOP leaders in 2013 to reinstate the voting hours and locations that had been cut the previous year.
Gihan Perera, the director of the New Florida Majority, remarked on the progress his state has made since 2012 when Victor and thousands of Miami residents had to wait hours to cast a ballot.
“We’re here to celebrate a tradition, and we’re here to celebrate an incredible story of resilience and democracy,” Perera told crowd.
Then the microphone was handed to Victor, who was growing hot in her Sunday best. She had only a few words to say. “Clinton!” she declared immediately, to laughs from the onlookers.
“Vote, vote, vote,” she added in her native French.
And then, after she was presented with a bouquet of flowers the size of her small frame, and after the mayor of North Miami declared November 6th “Desiline Victor Day,” it was time for her to vote.
Four Haitian-American women, wearing traditional dresses, danced in the front of the pack. Behind them, a local musician sang and played drums. Voting advocates and other young people formed the back of the parade as Victor was pushed in the middle, surveying the scene from under her wide-brimmed purple hat.
The line was once again long, but nobody seemed to mind as Victor was wheeled to the front and straight through the doors.