> WILTON – Polly Kenick, at 106 the town’s oldest resident, decided to vote by absentee ballot this year – the first time since she voted for Herbert Hoover in 1932.

Her folks were great "Hooverites," she said. She was in nurses train­ing in Exeter in 1930 when she turned 21.

"My father was all for having me vote," she said. "He encouraged Mama and me to vote."

Kenick said she isn’t sure, but she thinks she may have missed an elec­tion or two during the Depression when she was working and raising a family, and maybe during World War II.

She remembers voting for Hoover and Eisenhow­er. She doesn’t remember voting for FDR, but she was an admirer of Elea­nor Roosevelt. She didn’t miss the later ones: Nix­on, Carter, Reagan, both Bushes and Obama.

Asked if her husband influenced her vote, she said, "Oh, yes. He was a loyal Republican." Kenick said she did, sometimes, vote for the opposition – "But he didn’t know it." She said she had always been a Republican, but is now an independent. "I re-register after every election so I can stay one," she said. Kenick attended events for Hillary Clinton in 2008 and held an Obama sign at a Milford Labor Day parade, but she said she is now physically unable to take active parts in campaigning. She recalled distributing fliers for Sen. Norris Cotton, and admired "the first Governor Gregg, who saved Nashua when all the mills began leaving." Nowadays, her attitude is, "I’m going to be right here no matter who gets in, so voting is now the business of younger people who will