A Johns Hopkins student tried to vote by mail from Baltimore — but when her ballot didn’t show up, she flew home to Broward County just to vote. NBC 6’s Ari Odzer reports
Students in medical school are known to be busy people. They have zero free time, which makes what Kaela Bynoe did on Sunday even more remarkable.
“I just planned an impromptu trip to Florida. 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 1 p.m.,” Bynoe explained.
Bynoe is a first-year student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore and a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Her Broward County vote by mail ballot did not arrive, so she spent $600 on airfare to cast her ballot in person.
“I know that I’m very lucky to be able to afford that, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I hadn’t voted in this election,” Bynoe said.
“I feel this election is an election for our nation’s soul and even if you feel differently, you have very different political views from me, I don’t think you can be complacent, this is a right that I think everybody needs to exercise.”
Bynoe boarded the airplane wearing an N95 mask underneath a cloth mask ,and she also wore swimming goggles.
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“I looked ridiculous but it was worth it,” she said. “I felt safe but I did have to take off my goggles a couple of times because I was trying to study on the plane and they kept fogging up.”
The student has a lot of early voting company. In Miami-Dade, 656,761 people, which is 42% of registered voters, have already voted. In Broward, the number is 562,390, which is 44% of all registered voters.
Bynoe says there’s just no room for apathy this year.
“I mean no matter how this election goes I’m glad that I did this,” Bynoe said.
