This Florida Mom Voted While in Labor, So What's Your Excuse?

Sabrina Rojas Weiss
·2 min read

Waiting in line in the rain for hours just to vote early in this election seemed like a pretty good commitment to democracy, but one mother in Florida showed us just how far some people are willing to go to vote in 2020. While she was in labor and on her way to the hospital, she made her husband stop by her local Supervisor of Elections office so she could cast her ballot.

Karen Briceno Gonzalez, a customer service employee at the office in Orlando, told WESH news that a man stood in line and asked her for a ballot for his wife, who was waiting in the car.

“She refuses to go to the hospital until she votes,” Gonzalez quoted the husband as saying. “I was like, ‘OK, what can I do to facilitate her to vote?'”

So someone brought a vote-by-mail ballot to the car for her.

“She was calm; the husband was a little more nervous,” Gonzalez recalled. They had expected her to take the ballot with her and mail it in, but this mom knew just how important her vote is going to be this election.

“No, no, no, I need to fill it out right now,” she told Gonzalez, and she did it in between contractions. Someone certified her ballot and put it in the ballot box, and then the family was off to the hospital.

“She was very happy that she got to vote,” Gonzalez said.

So, yeah, you have zero excuses not to vote now.

Childbirth is nothing like in the movies, as these beautiful photos show.

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childbirth slideshow

Launch Gallery: These Powerful Photos Show What Childbirth Really Looks Like

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