Orford, New Hampshire - January 10, 2012
Heading into the polls Tuesday is Orford, N.H.'s most experienced voter. At 106 years old, Julia Fifield is in a class of her own.
"I'm voting for Romney. Believe me, I am. I'm a Republican through and through," she said.
Fifield has been casting ballots since she was 21-- 85 years ago-- at the strong urging of her grandfather.
"Not only urged me, he demanded that I get registered," she said. "And I have been voting ever since."
A cane in the Orford town office honors Fifield as the town's oldest resident. And she is thought to be New Hampshire's oldest voter.
Reporter Adam Sullivan: Some people would say when you hit 99, you have done your civic duty, but obviously you disagree?
Julia Fifield: I completely disagree.
"She comes to town meets and she partakes in it and she is really an example to follow," town moderator Peter Thomson said.
And Thomson would know-- he's been town moderator for 42 years, beginning back in the Nixon era. But Fifield's presidential history goes back much further. She cast her very first vote for Calvin Coolidge.
"And I voted for Coolidge, of course, because he was a fellow Vermonter. I was brought up in Vermont," Fifield said.
History aside, this Granite Stater still has a lot of spunk.
"Always a Republican but never a politician," she said.
A young spirit that her daughter, Ann Davis, says her mom has always had.
"Oh yes, you can ask anybody that knows her. She certainly has been," Davis said. "She should have told you the story-- she met President Taft when she was a little girl."
That story is for another day. On this election day, Fifield offers advice to fellow voters: "Put your heart and soul into it and remember you are an American. And it is your duty."
"We all love her and she is doing a great job and boy, 106, that is a good number," Thomson said.
A good number for a great American-- still going strong.
