Fox News hosts mock 102-year-old woman who waited 3 hours to vote

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Many Americans found the story of 102-year-old Desiline Victor to be heartwarming; the 102-year-old Miami woman, who was born in Haiti and labored as a farm worker before retiring, stood in line for hours waiting to vote last October, eliciting cheers when she finally emerged from the polling place with her “I voted” sticker.

On Tuesday, she became the oldest person ever invited to attend the State of the Union. She was a guest of first lady Michelle Obama. However at Fox News, Desiline’s story was written off as a “non-issue.”

From the liberal watchdog group Media Matters:

On Fox News Radio’s Kilmeade & Friends, host Brian Kilmeade and Fox’s Martha MacCallum and Bill Hemmer laughed off the difficulties 102-year-old Desiline Victor endured in order to vote in the 2012 election. Victor, who was invited to the State of the Union address and whom President Obama applauded for enduring a long wait to vote, had to make two trips to the polls and wait in line for over three hours before she was able to cast her ballot. Discussing Victor, MacCallum wondered, “What’s the big deal?” and said, “This is such a non-issue. Ridiculous.” Hemmer added that at the State of the Union, “They held her up as a victim. What was she a victim of?”

Studies have found that Florida had the longest wait times to vote in the recent presidential election, and that nationwide, black and Hispanic voters waited longer to vote than white Americans. Florida’s Republican legislature passed a law limiting the early vote period to eight days, when it had been 14, and many believe that, coupled with lengthy ballot measures proposed by the same state legislature, contributed to the long lines like the one Desiline confronted.

Read Desiline’s story here.

Watch the Fox News segment below, courtesy of Media Matters: