Mentally Challenged and voting

[Wrong Element]

Does anyone know if people suffering from retardation can vote?

If they can legally run for office, I certainly don't know why they would be prevented from voting.

 

[AlotLikePsyche]

Does anyone know if people suffering from retardation can vote? If they can make it to a polling station or obtain an absentee ballot who is to stop them?

How about those placed in some sort of mental health facility? Are their voting rights intact?

I know that voting is brought into, by machine or paper ballot, retirement AND nursing homes. Believe me, some of those dementia patients haven't a clue but can vote. Is that good?

Is any of this covered under the Federal Voting Rights Act?

Yes, people with mental disabilities have the right to vote, and also the right to have help voting from a person of their choice. I found some good resources, including a list of voting laws by state, on the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) website -

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Se...anagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=104099

A fact sheet there says in part:

You do have the right to vote!
If you are a person with a mental disability and understand what it means to vote, federal law protects your right to vote.
The laws that protect that right: The Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12132; Doe v. Rowe, 156 F.Supp.2d 35 (D.Me.2001).

 

[ChinaBandit]

Yes, people with mental disabilities have the right to vote, and also the right to have help voting from a person of their choice. I found some good resources, including a list of voting laws by state, on the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) website -

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Se...anagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=104099

A fact sheet there says in part:

You do have the right to vote!
If you are a person with a mental disability and understand what it means to vote, federal law protects your right to vote.
The laws that protect that right: The Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12132; Doe v. Rowe, 156 F.Supp.2d 35 (D.Me.2001).

Thank you for researching and posting a serious response.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Chinabandit, are you a Chinese citizen? Were you born in China or somewhere else?

Do you speak Chinese?

 

[colddiesel]

A few years back some friends who are supporters of the ALP (Australian Labor Party) arranged with a nursing home which had some 30 demented adults to "help" them with their voting.

Their conservative opponents got to hear about it but instead of objecting, they supplied the old folks with 5 gallons of cheap fortified wine (port I think) the night before. The following day the election officials refused to allow anybody who was smashed the right to vote. None of the old folks voted, but at least they expressed their preferences - it's called participative democracy.

 

[mercury14]

Obviously someone who is mentally ill to the point that they cannot read or fathom what voting is cannot vote. Neither can coma patients. Everyone else can vote.

 

[kbate]

This is one of the two areas where voter fraud is rampant, so yes while they have the right to vote, the assisted voting process should be monitored by election officials or the ballots should be provisional. Too often with mentally disabled and elderly, the assisted voting process is conducted by a party volunteer and the vote oddly trends 100% in a certain direction.

 

[mercury14]

This is one of the two areas where voter fraud is rampant, so yes while they have the right to vote, the assisted voting process should be monitored by election officials or the ballots should be provisional. Too often with mentally disabled and elderly, the assisted voting process is conducted by a party volunteer and the vote oddly trends 100% in a certain direction.

Do you have any evidence of this being a rampant problem? Or even a problem?

 

[kbate]

Do you have any evidence of this being a rampant problem? Or even a problem?

I first heard it on NPR. Assisted Voting and Absentee Voting are two places where fraud is common and has been prosecuted. Voter Registration fraud is also common. Voter Impersonation fraud is rare (because it is largely ineffective).

It is going to become even more of an issue now that as many as 1/3 of votes are cast early and absentee.

You can google for yourself, that way you'll get sources you can't indict, your asking for "documentation" is just a precursor to saying "I can't believe you used that as a source." (no, this is not ascription, it is history.)

While it would be doubtful if a presidential election could be changed even if every mentally handicapped and elderly person in assisted living homes voted the same way, it is less unlikely that a local school board election or county election could be swayed.

Voter ID laws don't stop a volunteer at the polls from pushing "Obama" instead of "McCain" for a visually handicapped person. Only a two person assisted rule does that.

 

[miles]

The thread title begs for at least six smartass replies.

 

[tactful]

Does anyone know if people suffering from retardation can vote? If they can make it to a polling station or obtain an absentee ballot who is to stop them?

How about those placed in some sort of mental health facility? Are their voting rights intact?

I know that voting is brought into, by machine or paper ballot, retirement AND nursing homes. Believe me, some of those dementia patients haven't a clue but can vote. Is that good?

Is any of this covered under the Federal Voting Rights Act?

What do you have against California?

 

[Ishmael]

This is interesting too Miss Ali. How can any state define rules for a Federal election? I don't understand how state jurisdiction exceeds the Federal Voting Rights Act. The whole purpose of it was to eliminate poll taxes and all those crazy things states like Mississippi did to keep blacks from voting.

The Federal Government sets the parameters, the states make the rules within those parameters and oversees the voting.

Or to put it another way, there is no constitutional 'right' to vote.

Ishmael

 

[LongDrySpell]

There are two VERY different populations being discussed here - those with mental ILLNESS, and those with cognitive disabilities/developmental delays/"mental retardation."

But there is a key phrase in the NAMI statement - you must be able to understand voting to be able to vote. In both populations it is a matter of degree.

And very honestly, there are LOTS of people out there who are neither mentally ill nor cognitively disabled, who are just absolute dumbasses, who can and will vote.

What can't happen is for somebody else to decide on behalf of another person how they would vote if they were able. One must be able to indicate a choice, through whatever means.

Look at it this way: if you're in a car accident the day before the election and you don't regain consciousness until the day after, you're SOL. Your next of kin can't cast your vote for you, even if they're absolutely sure what your vote would be. But if you are conscious, and you can tell an elector how you want to vote, then that elector can register your vote. Same holds true for the mentally ill and cognitively disabled.

Clearer now?