LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An ovation from strangers celebrated his first-time voting. The chorus of cheers at Jefferson County, Kentucky’s busiest early in-person voting site is not unusual. The backstory behind the young man they were cheering in as unique as any.
This day for Edwin "Van" Clements III at the Louisville Marriott East was special for multiple reasons. Friday, the high school senior turned 18 years old.
We caught up with Van and his father who is also an Edwin Clements II, but goes by the nickname "Casey," on the eve of this big day that meant a lot to his entire family.
“My grandparents, they gave me the privilege to vote so I was just extremely excited to exercise that," Van said.
His grandfather preached the importance of democracy and lived it by jumping from planes to save the world during WWII. He was the first Edwin Clements.
“My father was a paratrooper in World War II and he risked his life," said Casey. “He lost friends, he lost a best friend who was also my mother's brother, in order for us to be able to have the privilege to vote. It's not a right, it's a privilege.”
This young man preparing to go to the polls shares more than his love of basketball with the grandfather he never met. Van is a spitting image of the family war hero.
“It often brings tears to my eyes," an emotion Casey explained, “because Van never knew my dad. He died two years before Van was born. So as much as I feel like they look alike, I wish that they had gotten to know each other although I think he's around. I think he's watching.”
Van admits, he sees the resemblance in at least some of the old photographs and newspaper clippings. He wishes he could have heard his grandfather's basketball advice and war stories but the young man can't imagine what his grandfather’s generation faced, even as his own generation lives in a present plagued by pandemic.
“It's just ridiculous to think about that, at age 18, he was wanting to go to war and I'm just sitting here," Van said. “It's just a ridiculous thought to me. I'm very proud of him.”
On this day the family hopes that maybe somewhere, somehow, his grandfather shares in that pride for the boy, now man, he never met.
“It was a really great experience and it was awesome," Van told us after leaving the polls. “It felt like my grandfather was right there with me when I was doing it. It was an awesome birthday present.”