Joseph Hoopes can?t recall now who ran in the first election he voted in.
But it?s hard to blame a guy who turns 101 later this month, and who says he?s cast a ballot in every election he was eligible to participate in.
“I?ve voted all of my life. It?s very important,” Hoopes said, making his way ? on his own power ? into his polling place at Hickory Elementary School in Harford County just after 7 a.m. Tuesday.
His appearance there every Election Day is a highlight for election judges. Hickory poll judge Hope Ruff says she doubts he has ever missed one.
“We think it?s great. Everyone [who] comes in says they are getting older, but we say ?We got one older,? ” she laughed. “And he is sharp as a tack.”
Born into a Quaker household in Bel Air, Hoopes made his living as a farmer, like several generations of his family before him.
During his lifetime, election campaigns have changed, he said.
“I don?t care for all of the backbiting. It?s so negative,” he said of TV ads.
When he first began voting, one of the few ways to learn about a candidate was through the local newspaper, he said.
One thing he likes better now: The new voting computers.
“It?s better than filling in [a ballot] with a pencil,” he said.
Of the elections he?s witnessed, the one Hoopes recalls the best was one he wasn?t old enough to vote in.
“I was at the inauguration of [30th U.S. President] Calvin Coolidge,” Hoopes said. He recalls, as a student at the University of Maryland, taking the trolley car into Washington with several fellow students to watch Coolidge give his inaugural speech.
As to his politics, Hoopes said he believes in discretion.
He declined to say who he voted for in Tuesday?s election, but said he always votes the “character” of the candidate.
Asked what he thinks of the U.S. military presence in Iraq, he responded, “If there is a comparison to be made, we got out of Vietnam with a little of our dignity, but not much.”
“He hasn?t imposed any [of his views] on us,” said Hoopes? daughter, Lois Schwalenberg.
Hoopes chuckled.
“I ask her for her opinion more than she does mine,” he said.
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
