Here is another side of the issue. When I was poll watching for the last major election I witnessed a man bring in an elderly woman in a wheelchair and proceed to do her voting for her. She appeared to be unaware of her surroundings and I got the strong impression that she did not know what was going on. But this man, (who could have been family, but maybe not because he didn’t appear to interact with her or treat her kindly,) was voting for her.
I of course have no idea how “she” voted, but it appeared to me to be an example of potential voter fraud.
Another example of potential voter fraud that concerned me a few years ago: My polling site was changed to a nursing home. I imagine that most of those residents, regardless of mental state, “voted” democrat that year, whether they wanted to or not. I called up my local Republican Party and reported the situation. I got the standard brush-off. But to my surprise, the polling site went back to the former site. I don’t know if my complaint had any impact or not. It just seemed like a setting that was ripe for voter fraud to occur.
This is something that GOP could take the bull by the horns about, if they wished. It’s not just liberals who can look into these situations, ya know. Get some firsthand data. If they are all too blitzed to vote, see it personally.
People with disabilities do vote. I’m sure every spouse of someone with alzheimers “helps” their spouse vote. My mother did this for my father in the last election. Her rationale: how could we take away Dad’s right to vote? He always voted. And he wouldn’t have voted for Obama. So she took him into the booth and helped him. He didn’t have too much of a clue and was happy.
I kind of feel weird about it. But when your spouse is sick you try so hard to give him a good life and let him do as much as he can do, so these spouses will not rip away the right to vote from these guys. It usually takes help from the kids even to get the dangerous CAR KEYS away.
I don’t know what to say about the disabled. For every person who looks normal but could never fathom the seriousness of a vote, there is someone with someone like cerebral palsy in a wheelchair yet with perfect rational intelligence. And should be given assistance to vote.
I do not want to be the judge over who is mentally able to vote. Maybe a fair way to do it is to allow every person a single aide to help them vote. An aide can only help ONE voter. Period. The aide signs up when the person votes. Therefore one person can’t help more than one person. Maybe the relationship to the person is stated, as well.