A terminally ill state elector was filmed breaking down in tears as he cast his vote for President-Elect Joe Biden.
On Monday (December 14), Jack Arends cast his Electoral College vote for Joe Biden, and in the 90-minute car ride to the Washington state capitol in Olympia, he drafted a statement for those in attendance.
"[In] November, I was told there is no more medical treatment that can help me," he went on to tell the socially distanced group. "So it was important for me to do this one thing that I could do while I still can."
"Thank you, and God bless our great country," Arends said.
When he finished speaking, he let his head fall into his arms, and the room erupted into applause.
Watch Arends choke up as he casts his vote:"As I was reading the statement, many things came to mind about the experience with my family and what it had been like the last four years - it just overcame me," Arends said in an interview with PEOPLE about his speech which has garnered thousands of views online.
Arends explained that countless people reached out to him in the hours following his speech - family, friends, and even his old college roommate.
"I think I said something a lot of people were thinking," Arends said. "People were ready for him [Donald Trump] to go."
Arends joined the Democratic Party in 1999, and he was a precinct committee officer for two decades before his ailing health forced him to retire. However, since then, he has remained active in state politics.
He was selected to serve as one of Biden's state electors after receiving support from the district of Sonomish County, which put him alongside 537 others at the front of American democracy this week, PEOPLE reports.
Arends' joy at being selected as an elector, however, was overshadowed by concerns about his ailing health.
"I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what," he said. "I thought, I've gotta [be an elector] this year or I'm not going to be able to do it at all."
A day after he was selected to serve in the electoral college for Biden and Harris, he received a life-changing call from his cardiologist.
"We have detected some abnormalities with your heart and would like to do a valve replacement," they told him, Arends recalled.
"On Nov. 9, they said could not operate on what was left, and my condition would ultimately decline to the point that I would die," he said.
However, despite this devastating news, Arends was determined to make a bold statement with the time he has left.
"It was a combination of wanting to do something tangible, to push back on what's been going on and do one last act of advocacy before I die," he said.
"We're getting away from the values we supposedly hold dear as a country," he said.
He said it was "incredibly gratifying" to be among those who helped affirm Biden's win.
"I wasn't a big shot by any means, but we all have the power to alter the [future]," he told PEOPLE. "I'm glad that I followed my instincts and I'd do it again. No regrets. Our country's too important."
