Posted on 10/25/2004 9:24:18 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
As the hunt for every last vote intensifies, one question is being quietly debated in medical circles that may have an impact on this year's election:
Should people with dementia be allowed to vote?
In California, Democratic activists have filed suit against a veterans' hospital whose officials, they say, prohibited them from talking to residents on the grounds that they have dementia and were therefore incompetent to vote.
In Mobile, Ala., the district attorney fielded complaints this summer that mentally incompetent residents of a nursing home were allowed to vote in a municipal election.
And in South Carolina, state Democrats held a new primary after a state senator complained of voting fraud with absentee ballots of people in nursing homes with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
It's not known how many people with dementia actually vote, although recent studies in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island found that residents from dementia clinics voted in higher numbers than the population at large. Nationally, 4.5 million people are estimated to have dementia, while in Pennsylvania, those with Alzheimer's -- the most common form of dementia -- is estimated at 285,000.
Legally, states are all over the map on the issue, said Dr. Jason H. Karlawish, a geriatrician at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute on Aging, who directs the Dementia Voter Project. Pennsylvania, like 26 other states, has no guidelines on how election officials and judges should handle questions about voters who may or may not be capable of voting -- although it is possible that individual counties and boroughs have their own rules, he said. On the other hand, the 23 states that do have guidelines are mostly focused on the delivery of absentee ballots to nursing homes rather than on issues around assistance in voting.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Is this the behavior of people who have faith that the majority of Americans share their opinion about their candidate?
Is this any surprise? Isn't dementia a requirement to be a Rat? I only make jokes because I am scared to death of the level of fraud we are going to see this election.
They did it in Illinois during the 2000 election. the Dems went to every nursing home. I bet they do it in lots of states. who is going to stop them? The Democrats consider it a badge of honor to cheat.
Communism knows no rules...
Because the desire of communism is to control YOU at all costs...
They run them as candidates, I guess they expect them to vote too.
what's wrong with dementia? that shouldn't stop kerry,should it?
Ya gotta be demented to vote for a Dem!!
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