For Fort Myers resident Thomas Healy, not voting in a presidential election has never been an option.
“That’s the only thing we have that is real,” Healy said in an email shared by his daughter. “The vote eventually will influence how the government is being run.”
Healy, who lives in The Landings Yacht, Golf and Tennis Club, is 99 years old. He will celebrate his 100th birthday next July. He has voted in every election since he was 21 years old, including the 2024 election highlighted by the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
The first presidential election for Healy was in 1948 when Democratic Harry S. Truman defeated Republican New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey.
Healy’s daughter, Joan Healy Bisciotti, contacted The News-Press about her remarkable father, who was born July 21, 1925 to Irish immigrants and grew up in Elizabeth, N.J. He was in the Army Air Corp during WWII and was within hours of going into the Pacific conflict when the Japanese surrendered.