PALM HARBOR, Fla. — In a couple of weeks, 106-year-old Margaret “Peggy” Glode will be celebrating 107. She credits “good living” and “a glass of scotch every night before bed,” for her longevity.
The Pinellas County centenarian is also one of the oldest voters in Florida — she mailed in her ballot a couple of weeks ago, and she’s passionate about exercising her right.
"I think it's essential. It's our duty to get out and vote and make our vote count,” Glode told 10 Tampa Bay.
Her passion for voting, in part, comes from the understanding of what so many groups of people — African Americans, women and more — went through to secure that right.
Glode was born in England and moved to the U.S. as a young girl in the mid-1920s — just a few years after the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote.
“Look at the women who died then too, people, our forefathers fought to get the vote for us. And now some people are just disregarding it, and I think it's a shame,” Glode added.
That’s why she has made it a point to vote in every general election since she turned 21, back when former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt lived in the White House.
She's kept up with voting since moving to Dunedin in the 1960s and six decades later at "Peggy’s Paradise" in a Pinellas County assisted living home, the spry 106-year-old still has her hand on the pulse of politics.
Peggy says "politics today are too personal,” but there are still issues that drive her to vote, including illegal immigration. "Southern border, I think probably is the most serious [issue]. I really worry about what's going to happen down there."
The other issue is abortion: “It's up to each individual woman what she wants to do with her body. It's not up to the man to tell us what to do,” she added.
Proving politics isn't as simple as left or right, "I don't think I ever have voted straight ticket,” Peggy added.
She admits she gets disappointed when she sees low voter turnout numbers or meets people who just don't vote. She's hoping more see the value and importance of casting a ballot.
"The idea is, if you don't vote, then you can't complain about anything," says Peggy. "I do feel that it's important that everybody does [vote]. Every vote counts."