Nov 4, 2020 4 min read

UNIONTOWN – For John Wilson, voting is a right that he takes seriously and will go to great lengths – literally – to make sure his voice is heard.

During his first election in 1966 when he was 21, Wilson hitchhiked with three different motorists, traveling nearly 30 miles from college at Clarion to his hometown in Foxburg to vote.

His journey to vote in Tuesday’s general election was even longer and more adventurous.

Wilson, 75, who has a permanent home in the Deer Lake neighborhood of Wharton Township, has been living in Sacramento, Calif., since February working as the interim director for California Community Action Partnership Association. He expected that assignment to be done by August when he would return home to Fayette County, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the hiring of a permanent director, keeping him in California until the week before Thanksgiving.

With that in mind, he requested a mail-in ballot from the Fayette County elections office, and received it Oct. 9. He sent his ballot back four days later using certified mail with the Postal Service, and tracked its journey back to Pennsylvania. But then the tracking mysteriously stalled at a Pittsburgh distribution center, and he couldn’t figure out why.

It wasn’t until last Tuesday that it was delivered and he received an email confirmation that the elections office had accepted it. But a few minutes later, another email appeared in his in-box saying it had been rejected and an alternate ballot was being sent to his Deer Lake home.

He later learned from an elections worker that he accidentally wrote his birth date on the outer envelope rather than the day’s date, a mistake some voters have made that invalidates the ballot.

But with less than a week before Election Day, there was no chance a new ballot could be sent to California and returned in time.

So he had a decision to make: Miss voting for the first time in his life or book a last-minute flight back to Pennsylvania to “cure” his ballot at the elections office. As someone who’s supporting Democratic candidate Joe Biden for president in a key battleground state, Wilson chose the latter to make sure his vote is counted.

“It was frustrating, but once I knew (about the problem), I figured here’s the situation and I have to come back to vote,” Wilson said. “Friends offered to help with the ticket, but I’m fortunate I could afford to do it. I wouldn’t like to have spent that money. It’s just something I wanted to do.”

A ballot can be “cured” by a voter at his or her respective county elections office until 8 p.m. Tuesday if there is an issue.

Wilson spent $760 on his flight and about $60 more on a rental car. He arrived in Pittsburgh on Sunday night and drove to the elections office in Uniontown on Monday afternoon to correct the date on his ballot envelope so it would be counted.

“It’s the one time I can be certain I have a voice in this country,” he said. “I believe in the principles that our government was founded on. … To me, being a patriot is being a country that adheres to our values. My vote is as good as everyone else’s. My vote is my opportunity to be my voice and will be accountable.”

On a connecting flight to Pittsburgh, he spoke to a 17-year-old who couldn’t vote yet, but wasn’t sure which candidate he’d choose if he were eligible.

“When you vote, don’t vote on personalities and don’t vote the campaign,” Wilson said. “Decide what you want this country to be and what you want it to do for you, and what you can do for it. And that’s the course I’m on with it.”

He also has a message for state and federal leaders who make it harder to vote.

“I want the politicians to realize that this isn’t a game,” he said. “I’m proud of my views.”

Wilson, who retired as director of the Pennsylvania Community Action Association and is a board member for the Fayette County Community Action Agency, believes in fulfilling his civic obligations and wants others to feel as passionately about voting as him, even if they don’t have to go to the same lengths to do so.

“It’s important to me,” he said. “It’s a few minutes every four years. You spend four years preparing for it, so don’t blow it in the few minutes it takes to fill out the ballot and put it in the box.”

Even if that requires a plane ticket and a lot of determination.