Man drives 1,200 miles to Texas to cast US election vote ‘after absentee ballot didn’t arrive in post’

April Roach @aprilroach284 November 2020

A man has told how he was so determined to have his say in the 2020 US election that he drove 1,200 miles from Los Angeles to Texas to cast his vote when his absentee ballot failed to arrive in the post. 

Jeff Wilson works in California but lives in Kendall County, Texas. He told CBS Los Angeles that he intended to vote using an absentee ballot from LA, but drove through four states for 20 hours so that he would be able to cast his vote in person when it did not arrive. 

He set off from California on Sunday afternoon and arrived in Kendall County early on Tuesday morning.

“If I’m gonna drive 1,217 miles and sleep in my car for a few hours, I think there aren’t a whole lot of excuses to drive three or four minutes to the polling station and maybe wait a while," he said.

Voters can apply to receive a vote-by-mail ballot if they are out of the county on Election Day, but Mr Wilson said his ballot failed to be delivered to him.

It comes after another voter, Joe LaMuraglia says he drove 2,000 miles from Boston to Savannah in Georgia to cast his vote when his absentee ballot also failed to arrive in the post.

Mr LaMuraglia moved to Boston to live with his partner at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but he is registered to vote in Savannah.

The 52-year-old told the Boston Globe he spent 30 hours in his car to cast his vote.

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