Posted on 10/02/2024 3:30:27 AM PDT by LouAvul
OWASSO, OKLA (KTUL) — A man with dementia at an Owasso nursing home allegedly had his voting party changed by staff without permission from his guardians.
With just 10 days left to register to vote, a family said they caught this in time after they saw staff at The Highlands Nursing Home switch their loved one's party affiliation.
The Family said this isn't about party, but rather avoiding election fraud.
As November elections are coming up fast and the deadline to register is days away, Tracy Hopkins' family said they're worried about how many other people in nursing homes who can't make their own decisions have this happening.
"I thought heck, he's not going to be able to vote. He's incapacitated. He can't do it. He can't logically take all the information and make a decision," Randall Newberry, Tracy's brother, said.
Newberry said his brother suffered from a stroke some years back and recently was diagnosed with dementia. That's when Tracy's parents, who are his legal guardians, put him in The Highlands Nursing Home.
In July, Newberry said he went to visit his brother and said this letter was on the table saying Tracy's party affiliation was changing.
"He had just been put in the facility 6 months or 8 months prior. I just thought they were trying to catch up to him. I didn't know if it was phishing or what it was," he said.
Then this past weekend, Newberry went to visit his brother and saw Tracy's voter registration card with his new party affiliation.
He said Tracy legally and medically cannot make those decisions and he's down to responding in one-word answers. Newberry said recently, his brother was given six months to live.
News Channel 8 spoke with Terrance Gibson with The Highlands. He said staff, every election year, ask residents if they'd like to register to vote.
He said the Tulsa County Election Board didn't let them know Tracy was already registered in Mayes County to move over his information.
He adds, that when his staff asked Tracy which party he wanted to be affiliated with he responded with "Democrat."
The Highlands owner, Steve, said Tracy's health capacity is low, but he believes he has the right to vote.
“We’re trying to make sure those living in a nursing facility have as much of a normal life as possible and be able to do things like voting," Steve said over the phone.
Gibson said they're working with the family to re-register him if they want to and are working with Tulsa County Election Board to double-check all 100-plus residents.
He said, “Residents, whether they’re here, at home, or at the hospital have rights. We as providers want to protect those rights and have an obligation to help them, if they choose, to register to vote and make sure they get those absentee ballots.”
This comes after Governor Kevin Stitt recently announced more than 450,000 voter registrations were removed since 2021. 5,600 were felons.
144,000 moved out of state, and 97,000 died. Stitt's office said this is to reduce voter fraud.
Voting registration ends October 11th.
The family and staff at The Highland are encouraging voters and families to double-check voter registration before the deadline. To do so go to your local election board.
The gov-medical industrial complex is not your friend.
How is he capable of voting?
Or do they straight ticket the ballot per registration?
A local democrat committee woman used to fill out absentee ballots in nursing homes for victims of dementia, until the authorities ordered her too stop.
Someone should investigate voting in nursing homes, especially critical car nursing homes.
Do people suddenly become more devoted voters when they go to a nursing home, do the party registration rates look normal?
Do dementia patients and coma patients, etc. become dedicated voters, never missing registering and voting?
Kamalama will get 110% of the assisted-care votes. At a minimum.
Do dementia patients and coma patients, etc. become dedicated voters, never missing registering and voting?
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Oh, you know the answer to that! There were some nursing homes I believe in Michigan or Minnesota, where the voting rates were 100% for you know who!
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Oh, you know the answer to that! There were some nursing homes I believe in Michigan or Minnesota, where the voting rates were 100% for you know who!
They did it in Dubuque, IA too.
The Sheriff should throw the staff member in jail and forget abuut them.
The ONLY way you will ever stop this cheating is to publicly execute the perps.
People in NYS with Stage I dementia are still allowed to drive.
Dementia patients can still be legally competent.
I would take our family members who were suffering from dementia to vote when they still wanted to do so.
When they stopped wanting to vote, I then made damn sure that nobody voted for them.
And then I checked to ensure that nobody had.
The right thing for the family of a dementia patient is to remove that person from the voter rolls.
If a person is in a facility because of dementia, the family should be considerate and simply remove the person’s name for the voter lists.
When my mother was in a nursing home, the nurse tried to fill out her absentee ballot right in front of her.
Fortunately, see was physically, not mentally, impaired so she protested.
This was not a one-off!
Need a ‘LIKE’ button.
Yes, merely because a person is diagnosed with dementia does not make them incompetent. However, if they are at the point where they must be in a nursing home (because of the dementia), that implies an advanced stage of dementia. And they certainly should not vote. (Or allow someone else to vote for them.)
Being in a residential care facility, even a memory care facility, does not remove a person’s right to vote.
If a family member wants to deprive another of their right to vote, they’d better clear that with the family member, and/or get legal and medical advice.
Otherwise anyone attempting to disenfranchise their family member will deserve what they get.
See my reply #16.
That would do it!
I’ve heard that this happens a LOT in nursing homes. I haven’t heard that it’s the homes’ employees doing it, but RAT operatives going in under the guise of of other reasons. I guess both ...
It can’t happen without the people running the facility being aware of it.
Keep in mind that these are the same facilities that took sick CoupFlu patients back from hospitals when governors ordered it done even though Trump had had his CMS relax regs allowing facities the ability to refuse.
Never forget that if you have a loved one in residential care.
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