Still Voting at 99

STATE COLLEGE — Still voting after all these years, 99-year-old State College resident Bernadette Witzig cast her absentee ballot for the 2020 general election on Oct. 20. Witzig resides at Juniper Village at Brookline in State College.

She was assisted by Juniper activities aide Sara Scott and her daughter Leah Witzig, who read to her mother from the Centre County League of Women Voters’ Voters Guide. Witzig placed her ballot in the USPS locked mail slot in the lobby of Juniper Village at Brookline.

Bernadette Witzig was born in 1921 and cast her first vote for a U.S. president in 1944. She confirmed to her daughter that she voted in that election for Franklin Roosevelt.

Witzig has cast a ballot in 19 presidential elections since then spanning over 76 years. She has always emphasized that voting is a privilege, a right, and a responsibility.

She modeled this to her young children by taking them with her to the polls. The message stuck. Her children followed that example with their children on Election Day. Today that tradition continues with Witzig’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren, four generations in all.

Witzig remarked proudly while voting last week, “That’s quite a legacy!”

Juniper Village at Brookline is a five-building campus providing personal care, memory care and skilled nursing to its residents.

Bernadette Witzig cast her first vote for a U.S. president in 1944 and has voted in 19 presidential elections. Photo provided