Opinion: He cast his ballot in Georgia, oxygen tank in tow. Voting is a duty, not a choice.

My eyes popped open in the middle of the night recently, a sense of dread washing over me. Something was amiss.

It was as if my ancestors had reached down and tapped me on my shoulder. Hard.

“Wake up!”

It was in those predawn hours that I remembered my mail-in ballot to vote in Tuesday’s presidential election was halfway across the country. And worse, I would not be back home by Election Day to vote in person.

I’ve been bouncing around the country for both work and pleasure in recent weeks. Nevada. Ohio. New York. Indiana. I’ll be in Washington, D.C., next.

As I’ve previously explained, voting isn’t a choice for me. I see it as my civic and moral duty. I was taught to always vote because there was a time – not too long ago – when Black people were prohibited from doing so or illegally challenged at the polls.

Travel or not, I had to fix this. I jumped into action, first researching the internet about the absentee voting rules in my county. I discovered I could get another one-time mail-in ballot sent to me. I tried to request it online but kept getting booted out of the portal.

Let’s go old-school, I thought, and I picked up my phone. I called my county clerk’s office to request a new ballot. The employee asked for my information to ensure my identity and said they would send my provisional mail-in ballot to my temporary address. I waited a week. It never arrived.

I called again, this time spending over an hour explaining my plight. It was Oct. 29, the last day to request a replacement ballot. I was beyond stressed, especially because I was told three times that I didn’t have any options to get a new ballot in time for it to be postmarked by Tuesday.

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'You just have to fight for certain things'

All this got me wondering what lengths others have gone through to ensure their vote counts. Because life’s circumstances can certainly derail the best laid voting plans. Maybe it’s unexpected travel. A snowbird who forgot to change their address before fleeing the cold. Or maybe it’s illness.

Look no further than 82-year-old Lemuel Elzy, a resident of Marietta, Georgia.

On July 11, Elzy suffered a medical emergency. It was a shock to his family, to his three daughters who were used to a healthy and vibrant father, one who flourished living alone, drove himself everywhere and who still worked as an accountant and tax preparer since retiring from General Motors in 2008.

But Elzy had suffered two strokes and been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and renal failure. His body was starting to shut down. Doctors didn’t believe he would make it and started preparing his daughters for the inevitable. He languished in the ICU for a month before turning a corner.

For two additional months, he was in and out of hospitals and rehabilitation centers, improving and gaining strength. He was going to be OK, but medical professionals said he needed to be moved to an assisted living facility. He could not go back to recover at his home of 42 years, where all the bedrooms are upstairs. They chose a facility in Gwinnett County so he could be closer to family.

Look up and it’s September. While Elzy was on the mend, his daughters realized he wouldn’t be home to vote so they requested an absentee ballot for him.

When an envelope arrived in October at Elzy’s house from the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration Office, daughter Dionne Battle scooped it up. She didn’t open it right away, but when she did, she saw that the absentee ballot request had been denied because Elzy’s address was written in the wrong place.

“When I received it, I actually thought it was his ballot,” Battle, 56, told me. “I was like, ‘Oh, good, we got his ballot. I'm going to keep it in my purse so I won't lose it and I can give it to him to fill out.’ ”

They broke the news to Elzy. Battle describes a look of devastation and shock on his face. That didn’t last long. It turned to determination: “Oh, I’m voting,” he told his daughters.

So they decided there was only one solution: Break him out of the facility – with his portable oxygen tank in tow – and drive him to the closest Cobb County early voting site, about an hour away from Gwinnett County.

Elzy voted in person and made it back to the facility in time for dinner.

“I just kept thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I wonder how many other people have gone through something like this, specifically seniors,' ” Battle told me. “He was appalled, I think just really insulted that they rejected his absentee ballot for an address mistake – yet they managed to mail the rejection to his address."

“Had it been two weeks prior, we would not have been able to take him to vote in person because he wasn't strong enough," she said. "But we were taught you just have to fight for certain things so that’s what we did.”

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'We had to figure out a way to vote'

Indeed. I had to fight, too.

While on the phone with my clerk’s office, I asked the employee to consult with his supervisor each of those three times he told me I was out of options. Because there had to be another way. Finally, after not accepting ‘no’ for an answer, I was informed there was a way to vote electronically, that I had to fill out a remote accessible ballot, print it and mail it along with a signed oath stating I have not voted nor do I intend to vote a ballot from any other jurisdiction for this same election.

The document also reminded me that voting twice in the same election is a crime.

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Once was all I wanted or needed. And now my ballot and voter oath are safely in the mail on the way to the county clerk to be counted. I paid for priority shipping for added peace of mind. Upon arrival, it will be cross-referenced with my voter registration record to ensure the signatures match.

Whew. Crisis averted. But it took a lot of time and anxiety to make it happen. Someone less determined or less motivated to cast a ballot might have accepted the first "no" and not voted. After all, about 100 million eligible voters opted to avoid the polls in 2016. Four years later, in 2020, that number was closer to 80 million. I’m sure the majority chose not to vote, but how many faced election snafus that forced their hand away from a ballot?

“Had we not done what we did, my father could not have voted,” Battle told me. “His vote would not have counted in this crucial election. That would have been unacceptable. We had to figure out a way to vote.”

Suzette Hackney is a national columnist. Reach her on X: @suzyscribe

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Despite voting options, casting a ballot requires persistence