Woman Pays $600, Flies 1K Miles to Vote

Voters are heading out in record droves to cast their ballots in the 2020 election, but one medical student showed extra determination over the weekend to have her voice heard. Per NBC Miami, Kaela Bynoe, a first-year student at Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine in Baltimore, became concerned when her vote-by-mail ballot from Broward County, Florida, never showed up in Maryland, so she made a decision that she says put a worthwhile dent in her wallet: She paid $600 to fly home to Florida on Sunday to vote. "I bought a ticket to fly to Fort Lauderdale, woke up at 5, got to the airport, took a flight, immediately took an Uber to the nearest polling place in Hollywood, voted, and then went straight back to the airport and flew back to Baltimore at 1pm," Bynoe says.

And if the flights had been booked? "If I hadn't been able to get a flight, I would have driven down to vote," Bynoe tells the Washington Post, which reports on others who've done the same thing as Bynoe after their own absentee ballots never showed up. "I don't believe in being complacent." And though she says her push to get others to head to the polls is nonpartisan, as she believes everyone should exercise their voting rights, she makes it clear who she voted for. "Five hours of flying is more than worth it to prevent four more years of this president," she says. (More absentee ballots stories.)