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At age 103, Sarah C. Jones of Goshen is surely among the most senior citizens who cast their votes on Tuesday.

She was born on September 22, 1916, more than three years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the national right to vote. 

For Sarah C. Jones, voting is a right and one that she has never taken lightly.

“I’m 103 years old and but I am not too old to vote,” she said, with a smile. “I always go with the elephant.”

Elections that stand clear in her memory involved FDR and Nixon.

“Of all the presidents, I like Ike,” Mrs. Jones said.

After she finished school, she boarded a troop train to meet her husband, who was serving in the Navy, in Seattle.

“The train was full of young soldiers and me,” Mrs. Jones said. “It was a long ride and I finally told the conductor that I had to have a berth so I could rest.”

The long trip across the country on the troop train imbedded the love of country even more deeply within Mrs. Jones. Any time there is an election, be it local, state or national, Mrs. Jones is ready to “pull the lever.”

She has seen voting evolve from marking and counting paper ballots to electronic voting and whatever the way, she did her civic duty.

Voting is a right and a privilege and those who don’t take advantage of those opportunities should be ashamed, she said.

Sarah C. Jones voted on March 3, 2020 just as she has every time an election came around.

Sometimes her candidates lost; sometimes they won but she could always have her say about the ways of the world because she did her part. “I voted.”