Helen Benson, 100, of Los Alamos voted Wednesday just as she has voted in every election—local, state, national—since 1942. Courtesy photo

By JODY BENSON
Los Alamos

Helen Benson voted Wednesday just as she has voted in every election — local, state, national — since she voted for FDR in 1942.

In her long life, she has seen all flavors of government, in the US and around the world. She knows how important every individual vote is.

Helen Lueth, a descendent of Suffragists, was born on Aug. 16, 1920, just two days before the 19th Amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote, and two weeks before the amendment became law.

She has lived in the most amazing of eras: from America’s Model-Ts rattling along unpaved roads to America’s Voyager leaving the solar system. America invented the telephone, the supercomputer, and now, the supercomputer you carry in your pocket. Helen always votes for science.

She has watched America plunge into multiple recessions including the Great Depression. During the Great Depression she saw how good government can lead people to work together to solve national problems. That good government supported laborers and business, the arts, industry, infrastructure, and science to bring the nation out of the Depression by spending taxes on behalf of the people who paid the taxes. She participated in the national recovery. Helen always votes for national unity.

After WWII, she watched how good government—her own American government—can become powerful by being moral and thereby leading the world away from the tyranny and fascism that oozes from inequality, hunger, injustice, and poverty. That moral stance helped to prevent another global war for 56 years. Helen always votes for human dignity

She watched as her own country worked to finally move toward including economic rights for the majority of the population not born male and white. She participated in gaining the right of women to be safe and to make their own choices about health, family, education, and occupation. She knows the nation isn’t there yet, so Helen continues to always vote for mercy.

Now? After 79 years of voting, Helen voted again in the 2020 local, state, and national election. She voted for people who represent her values. At 100, despite being locked in Aspen Ridge Assisted Living during a pandemic ignored by the national government, she cast her ballot.

And how did she vote? Helen has a long memory of when America truly was great. She voted her values: For science that can not only defeat polio, but predict how to mitigate the reality of global warming. For mercy, justice, and human rights for the people of the world. For education and opportunity. For global health and technological advancement that can be shared by all the people of the Earth. She voted to regain our American greatness. This means, she voted for the platform that could lead us back to being a just, moral nation guided by science and working toward human dignity—to become again what the world used to think of as: “The Beacon of Freedom”, “The Shining City on the Hill.” So no. She did not vote for the current administration.

Every vote counts. Tuesday, Nov. 3, is the day. One vote can change an election. Her vote. Yours. It’s up to us. 

For voting information call 505.662.8010 or click here.