Miriam Elizabeth Lancaster, December 7, 1915 (Florida) - October 12, 2017 (Winter Park, Fla.)
VP candidate for Independent (2000)
Running mate with nominee: May Chote (1924-2010)
Popular vote: 34 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
May Chote and her husband Ray lived in a mobile home park in the middle of the Florida Keys. They both liked to run for office, first in California and then in Florida. Being non-TV watchers, their home was a crowded archive of reading material.
Both of the Chotes had a history of fighting for ballot access as champions of independents and the common person who was not part of a major party establishment. In the 1990s the couple had gravitated to the Reform Party.
Among the many write-in campaigns the Chotes were involved with in 2000 was May's own run for US President, registered only in the State of Florida. Her running-mate was 84-year old Miriam E. Lancaster of Orlando.
Miriam was also involved with the Reform Party, but perhaps the schisms within that organization caused both Chote and Lancaster to go out on their own. Reflecting on the warfare by the factions, Lancaster told a reporter early in 2000, "I think it's a horror. It's making a laughing stock of this party."
Lancaster was not a contributor to the 34 votes earned by the ticket. She voted for Al Gore.
In 2002 May and Ray Chote ran as longshots for US Congress in the same race-- she in the Republican primary, he in the Democratic.
Election history:
2004 - Orange County (Fla.) Soil and Water Conservation District Board - defeated
Other occupations: restaurant owner in Woodstock, NY
Buried: Oakland Cemetery (Waycross, Ga.)
Notes:
Believed in astrology.
Voted for Dewey in 1948.
Lancaster became a symbol of elder rights after the State of Florida removed her from the voting
rolls in 2016 when at age 100 they claimed she was mentally unfit, a charge very vocally challenged
by Miriam and her supporters. A televised interview with her at the time presents a centenarian with
an amazing sharp mind and sense of humor.
Also known as Miriam Curry Lancaster.
Was raised in Waycross, Ga.
