'I needed to put my ballot where my mouth was': Durham native living in D.C. travels all night to vote, and Twitter cheers her on

Emily Miller traveled all night just to vote, and Twitter cheered her on along the way.

The 22-year-old lives in Washington, D.C., but is registered to vote in her hometown of Durham, N.C. She requested an absentee ballot two weeks before the deadline (which was one week before the election), but it never came. Instead of accepting defeat and moving on, she did what any politically passionate millennial would do: She took action.

“I did not have a plan in place, but I recognized that not getting the ballot might be a possibility yesterday before I left work,” Miller told Yahoo Lifestyle. “As I was heading home to check my mailbox, I was looking up travel options just in case.” When she opened her ballot-free mailbox, she knew what she had to do. “I made the decision after talking to my mom that evening. I thought about it for a few minutes, consulted my mom, and put a poll up (as a joke, mostly) on Twitter.”

The poll presented her options: a midnight bus from D.C. to Durham, or cry and pray for change. Out of 196 votes, 96 percent voted for her to vote. But she didn’t even wait to see the results.

“About three votes into the poll I bought the bus ticket and then bought the plane ticket shortly after. I didn’t think about it until I hit ‘pay’! But I knew I had to do my civic duty,” she said.

The 260-mile journey got her into Durham just before the polls opened around 5 a.m. She would fly back to D.C. for work a few hours later — just enough time to exercise her constitutional right.

“I thought briefly about not going home to vote, but I’ve worked in and studied politics since before starting college, and I’ve been working really hard on ‘Get Out the Vote’ efforts as part of my job and part of my personal life,” she said. Miller is a digital associate at a nonpartisan progressive nonprofit in D.C. called Youth Caucus of America. “I really love politics and our political system,” she said. “I am very passionate about North Carolina politics, having even studied our state House of Reps and Senate as a part of my senior thesis to graduate from college,” she explained. “It quickly became apparent that I needed to put my ballot where my mouth was and make the journey.”

She documented her mostly sleepless journey in a Twitter thread that quickly caught on, thanks in part to HBO’s Pod Save America. “I have been a HUGE fan of Pod Save America for about a year and a half. I thanked them because they inspired me to go on the journey and because Tommy Vietor, one of the hosts, retweeted my original post and helped it go viral!”

Her first tweet in the thread now has 70K likes, and fans followed along to see her make it to the polling site, and then back on the plane at the end of her journey.

Thousands of people commented, some swapping stories of their own hourslong journeys to vote, others offering to send her food or coffee along the route. She asked that they donate to LGBT Center of Raleigh instead.

Her friends and family have been just as supportive. “My mom encouraged me to make the decision and said she’d pick me up if I could make it to Durham. No one outwardly discouraged me from coming to N.C. — even my boss.” Her friends said this was very “on-brand” for her, “as in they figured it would be something I would do considering my prior activist work and my passion for the political system,” Miller explained.

While her involvement in politics was a big part of why she felt pulled to the polls, that wasn’t the only reason. “I’ve been thinking a lot about why I decided to go. It was partially because of the work I do and have been doing to get out the vote. It was more strongly influenced by the incredible people across the world — from those risking their lives in Afghanistan a few weeks ago to vote to those who leave their homes to come to America, even though the country is outwardly unwelcoming,” she said. “I felt like I owed it to them — and to everyone who has sacrificed for my rights, from soldiers to suffragettes.”

And even if the election doesn’t go the way she hopes, she’ll have no regrets. “The memories alone are worth it, and the fact that I was able to raise money for the Raleigh LGBT Center was a cherry on top.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• Fashion’s Focus: Getting Out the Vote

• Michelle Obama hosts rally to get out the vote: ‘You spend 11 minutes choosing Instagram filters to text your boo’

• The “Me Voting in 2016 vs. 2018” Memes Are the Only Thing Getting Me Through Today

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