Georgia Tech student Hannah Tindall trekked with her friends through five states and more than 800 miles to vote Tuesday.
Tindall, 22, who is registered to vote in Pennsylvania, planned to vote by absentee ballot, but she and friends worried her ballot may not be counted because of some damage to the return envelope.
The group discussed the situation Monday night and tried to call elections officials in Montgomery County in that state, but couldn’t get anyone on the phone. They soon discussed another idea, a road trip to Pennsylvania.
Tindall and her three housemates left Atlanta at about 10:30 p.m. Monday and hit the interstate in her friend’s Honda Accord. They arrived at the polling location in Harleysville, Pennsylvania., around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, where she was greeted by her parents. She cast her ballot in about 15 minutes. They had lunch afterwards at her parents' house.
“Nothing would stop me from getting my vote in,” Tindall, who is majoring in biochemistry, said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon as the group was somewhere in Maryland.
She was napping before the interview.
Tindall said it is her civic duty to vote.
“It’s the principle of (voting),” she said. “It’s recognizing the privilege of having a say in who our leaders are.”
She was also motivated by the predictions of several political pundits that Pennsylvania may decide the presidential election. Tindall declined to say which presidential candidate she voted for, saying she didn’t want her decision to distract from the importance of voting.
Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera gave her a shout out on Twitter.
“Kudos to Hannah and her travel companions,” he said.
Tindall was grateful, but not entirely surprised by her friends' willingness to help.
“It’s very indicative of my friends,” she said. “They’re down for anything.”
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