The labour vote literally has been cast this morning in the south suburbs.

At 21, Galicia Malone of Dolton is eligible to vote for the first time in a presidential election.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, she’s also pregnant with her first child. So when her labor began at 3 a.m., she held off going to the hospital until she was able to go to her polling place and vote.

“I never voted before so this made a major difference in my life,” she said. “And I wanted this to be a stepping-stone for my daughter.”

As she worked her way through the ballot, her contractions were coming every five minutes.

“I was just trying to read and breathe, read and breathe,” she said. “That’s what I kept telling myself, ‘Read and breathe, read and breathe.”

Once she finished voting, she left her polling place and drove herself to the hospital, awaiting the birth of her daughter. She calls it a milestone day – her first vote and her first child.

“If only all voters showed such determination to vote,” Cook County Clerk David Orr said in a statement. “My hat goes off to Galicia for not letting anything get in the way of voting. What a terrific example she is showing for the next generation, especially her new son or daughter.”

Malone cast her vote at the aptly-named New Life Celebration Church, in south suburban Dolton.

– CBS News