Election Day Question

[Athena3]

So here's an election day question:  

I've been reading the last couple of days about various voter frauds and concerns and I thought of one this morning.  My grandmother has alzhiemers/dementia, whatever you want to call it and hasn't been able to vote for the past two elections.  What happens to the thousands of American's who don't have the mental faculties to vote?  Anyone with access to their mailbox and address could mail for their absentee ballots and fill them out (they do have those little 'assisted by' lines so you don't need their signature) and if they're in a nursing home or cared for out of their home, who would know?  It's not like there are national lists they can be put on that say 'these people are vegetables.'  Sure, responsible family members should take them off the registry, but does anyone check on this stuff?

[Gyro/T69]

Good question, I have no idea. At that point in their life, someone should hold power of attorney. Anyone with that, can do what ever they like, more or less.

[rpm]

Unfortunately, that is an area that can be exploited. I don't think it is possible for one person to remove another person from the registered list without their permission. Unless you live in Florida.

[midnight Target]

It could easily be abused. We used to help our adult students vote (absentee) when I was teaching special ed. We tried very hard not to influence a choice, but I'm sure we failed on many occasions.

[TalonX]

Let's hope that the number of voters with alzheimers who are de-frauded in their votes isn't such a big number as to matter.

[Athena3]

I wouldn't think it'd be a huge number, but how many votes did Bush win Florida by in 2000?   A few hundred?  How many alzhiemer's patients do you think there are in Florida alone?  Not that I'm anti-Republican, I don't belong to either party, but I found the thought interesting.

Just checked the numbers, there are an estimated 4 million+ people in the US with the disease.

[myelo]

This is a major problem. Voting rates are highest among the elderly, the very group at risk for dementia. Soon there will be 15 million Americans with some form of dementia.

Federal election laws give state the capacity to deny voting privileges to persons with mental incapacity. About two-thirds of the states have laws that preclude voter registration by people judged “insane" or mentally incompetent or incapacitated or who are under a guardianship order. Many of these laws are unclear and unconstitutional and none of these states identifies a standard to assess an individual's capacity to vote.

For example, Maine passed a law that bans anyone from voting if they are mentally ill to the point of guardianship. The courts struck this down as being overly broad and because it did not address the ability to vote specifically. The court articulated a standard that a person who understands the nature and effect of voting and can make a choice is competent to vote.

Guardians are allowed to assist someone in voting. But it’s illegal for them to vote on behalf of another person.

The University of Pennsylvania has a project called the Dementia Voting Project  that is attempting to address these issues and develop a procedure to determine if individuals are competent to vote.

[Athena3]

Thanks for the link Myelo, it's interesting to see that there are people working on the problem.  And it's ironic that Maine tried to pass a law for it seeing as how my family lives there.

[SaburoS]

I would think that the criminals that are raiding mailboxes, etc., do it to get money and/or open new loans, credit card accounts, Social Security checks. I don't think they'd risk checking in different ID's just to vote multiple times.