Early voting draws a crowd

'Needy' times prompt a 97-year-old woman to cast her first ballot Saturday

HOLLY SPRINGS -- Growing up, Cle Esther Raines used to pray that God would pick the right president. That was enough for her.

Today, she believes times are "needy," and so Saturday -- her 97th birthday -- she headed to the polls for the first time.

Raines was chauffeured to and from the event in a white Cadillac. She got a hug from an election worker. Supervisor Laura Chapman escorted her to an electronic voting machine, stayed with her and then walked with her to the ballot box.

"It was beautiful," Raines said. "She was with me, and I didn't even get nervous."

Getting her to the W.E. Hunt Community Center took plenty of talking, but it was Hugh Moore, whom Raines looked after while he was a boy, who finally persuaded her. Raines considers Moore's family "something special."

Moore, 49, his 17-year-old son, and his 82-year-old mother escorted Raines to the polls.

Born in 1911, Raines was raised on a tobacco farm. She had four children before her husband died in 1946. All of her children went to college; now she has 15 grandchildren.

Most of those standing in line to vote weren't even half Raines' age. She stood quietly, holding a stack of bills and other forms of identification in her left hand. It took about 20 minutes for her to register and vote.

"It's a needy time, and I have been kept for this time, but I didn't know it," Raines said. "We're needy for the right person." Whom that person is, she was not telling.

Raines considered her first voting experience an "honor and a blessing" and plans to do it again in November. She hopes others will do the same.