Voter Profile: A Democrat for 84 Years

Eldersburg resident Betty Griffith said she has been a Democrat since 1928.

Griffith, who will turn 90 in five days, was on her way to vote at Oklahoma Road Middle School in Sykesville, MD, Tuesday when she told her story to Patch.

"I became a Democrat when I was six years old," Griffith said. 

She said that when she was six, she carved the name "Al Smith" into her mahogany bed headboard. Alfred "Al" Smith was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1928. She recalls getting in quite a bit of trouble for her carving.

Griffith said she has been a political junkie all her life, although she likes to keep quiet about it. She said it isn't easy being a Democrat in Carroll County, known to be a conservative Republican county in a blue state.

"My hero was Roosevelt," Griffith said. "I have a picture of him hanging in my room."

Although she thinks who a person votes for is personal, Griffith revealed Tuesday that she will vote for President Barack Obama.

She said she is a little confused about referendum Question 7--gambling--and although she is a lifelong Catholic, she said she will vote to uphold the same-sex marriage law.

"I just don't see what other people marrying has to do with me," Griffith said. 

Follow live election results in Carroll County throughout the evening here.

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