ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A determined Orange County woman is making headlines around the country after she made her husband stop by the Supervisor of Elections Office so she could make sure to cast her ballot before delivering their baby.
“She said, ‘No no no! I need to fill it out right now,’” Karen Briceño González said.
Briceño is an employee with the Supervisor of Elections Office in Orange County. She recalled the woman’s reaction after she handed her a mail-in ballot and told her to return it by Nov. 3.
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“It was a odd situation but she wanted to vote and that was her right as an American citizen,” Briceño said of the encounter that happened Tuesday afternoon.
“All of a sudden I get a voter in front of me and he hands me two driver’s licenses,” Briceño said. “He had been waiting in line and I came, and I told him, ‘I need your driver’s license for you to vote.’ He says, ‘No, you don’t understand. I already voted.’”
It turns out he was requesting a ballot for his wife who was waiting in their car and in labor. The couple was on their way to Winnie Palmer hospital on South Orange Avenue but the expectant mother wanted to first make sure she voted.
“I go: ‘We need her here.’ And he basically told me, ‘That’s gonna be a problem. She refuses to go to the hospital until she votes,’” Briceño said.
Soon after, Briceño, who is also a mother, stepped outside the building on Kaley Street which is located close about half a mile from the hospital.
“She was calm, the husband was a little bit more nervous. We want to facilitate every voter that is eligible to vote, the right to vote no matter their circumstances,” she said. “I understand the importance of this election to some people. I gave her an ‘I voted’ sticker and she was on her way to the hospital. She was very happy that she got to vote.”
Briceño and other staff members said they would like to reunite with the happy mother.
“I hope that the baby is safe and she is safe and they are assured that their ballot was put in the ballot box and that their vote will be counted,” she said.