Maximo P. White, 71, of Sharpsville, was in a body cast up to his neck in 1992 but he still voted that year.

Walter E. Brautigan, 78, of Mercer, was seriously injured when he wrecked his racecar and drove the steering-wheel column into his mouth one summer decades ago but he still voted later that year.

White and Brautigan were among 254 Mercer Countians inducted into the county Voter Hall of Fame Friday for casting ballots in the last 50 or more November elections. Four were inducted posthumously.

The voters also were enshrined in the state Hall in Harrisburg.

"I have never greeted such a distinguished group," said Mercer County Chairman Commissioner Cloyd E. "Gene" Brenneman at a ceremony at Mercer High School.

More than 150 inductees, many with their families and friends, attended the ceremony.

Members of the distinguished group could not vote until they were 21.

The 26th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1971, gave voting rights to those 18 and older. During the war in Vietnam, many felt those who were old enough to be drafted and sent to fight were old enough to vote. In the three decades that have followed, 18- to 21-year-old voters have been less likely to vote than older voters.

Many in the group enshrined Friday fought in World War II before they ever voted.

John J. Meredith, 81, of West Middlesex, wore the medal he earned at Omaha Beach in Normandy. Meredith began voting after he returned from the war. Meredith was honored Friday along with his wife of 59 years, Sara L., 83.

Mrs. Meredith, who uses a wheelchair and is blind in one eye, votes via absentee ballot these days, but her husband still makes it to the polls. Meredith has voted on paper ballots, in mechanical booths and on touch-screen voting machines. "I've done it all," he said with a laugh.

None of the inductees considered it a hardship to vote each November for at least the last half-century.

"I think it's a privilege," said Greenville resident Betty Lou Artman, after whom Artman Elementary School in Hermitage is named. "Many people today don't understand that it's a privilege."

Mrs. Artman said she voted via absentee ballot one year when she was ill, but has made it to the polls every other year. She said she has voted in about 90 percent of the primary elections.

White, who once voted while he was in a body cast, said voting was "expected." White said his father was a Farrell constable who also voted every year for more than 50 years. The expectation has passed generations. Said White's daughter, Anne Meggit of Amherst, Ohio: "There's a lot of pressure on me."

Brautigan, the racecar driver, joked that he had nothing better to keep him away from the polls and added, "I didn't think I'd live this long."

Brautigan ran the only Chevrolet on Daytona Beach in 1950.

Secretary of the Commonwealth Kim Pizzingrilli attended Friday's ceremony. "Whether they were defending our country, raising a family or working, they have set aside time every Election Day for at least 50 years," she said of the inductees. "They don't make excuses. They make it to the polls."

More than 5,000 Pennsylvanians have been inducted into the state Hall during the Ridge administration which launched the Hall five years ago.

The inductees, who received certificates and commemorative plates Friday, will have their names included in a book that is part of the Pennsylvania Voter Exhibit and Voter Hall of Fame in Harrisburg. A plaque with the inductees' names will hang in the basement of the county courthouse.