Woman returns to cast her ballot after husband’s death at Mississippi polling site

A woman returned to cast her ballot in Mississippi’s Senate race hours after her husband collapsed and died at their polling site, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Emmitt Booth collapsed while coming through the doors to vote at the South McComb Baptist Church on Tuesday morning. 

{mosads}“He was coming in the door and as he was getting ready to open the door, he collapsed,” precinct bailiff Keith Varnado told The Enterprise-Journal newspaper. “I felt him stop breathing.”

Booth was taken to the hospital where he later died.

His wife, Marie Booth, returned later in the day to cast her ballot.

Pike County Election Commission Chair Trudy Berger praised her decision, saying it is what her husband would have wanted.

“She said that’s what her husband would have wanted her to do,” Berger said.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) prevailed in the Mississippi Senate runoff, fending off former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy (D).

Hyde-Smith will serve out the remaining two years of former Sen. Thad Cochran‘s (R) term, making her the first female senator elected from the state after Gov. Phil Bryant (R) chose her to replace Cochran in April.

Her victory was a sigh of relief for Republicans as they boosted their Senate majority to 53-47 seats.