I’m more concerned that people with any level of dementia can hold public office (edit to add: this applies to anyone on either side of the aisle. Not talking about one person specifically)
The uneducated can also vote. And I don’t mean people that didn’t go to school I mean people that didn’t read a thing about the election of people who vote on one issue. I honestly don’t see much of a difference.
Everyone knows 46 had a seriously diminished capacity that got worse towards the end. I know everybody will cry about something relating to Trump but we seriously do not know who was running the country. That should scare either party
I work for an investment company and most of our clients are elderly. It is unfortunate when we have to try to do security checks or go through some information with them and they can’t keep up.
yes, they technically can. but, do they? Have you ever met someone with ‘advanced dementia’? let’s be realistic about this. it’s not a problem that needs anyone to think about it.
If you haven’t noticed that the general public is mostly dunces and that’s the real problem…..well…..
But seriously, our fellows are mostly not capable of understanding any complex topics. Even most people “good” at their jobs are good in a “I put the square peg in the square hole and now I’m efficient at it” kind of way.
Those dementia people aren’t getting out to vote nearly as much.
I seriously doubt there’s enough people with advanced dementia voting to make any sort of political difference. A very small percentage of people have dementia full stop. I don’t think you realise how debilitating advanced dementia is if you think people are going out and voting. Advanced pretty much means you’re on death’s door.
Thought-provoking question. My gut instinct is to say they shouldn’t because you should be “of sound mind” to vote. I’m not sure how that would be decided, though, and the potential for abuse is troubling. How would this be handled?
I think this is similar to people with serious intellectual disabilities voting. If someone has been assessed to be intellectually at a five-year-old level, is it right that they are allowed to vote? Doesn’t this just mean that they will be influenced by their carer, family member, etc., so that person is essentially voting twice? Or will be voting essentially randomly? It’s a complicated issue.
Just because they have dementia doesn’t mean they are no longer citizens. If they have the mental capacity to register to vote and to cast their vote then I see no problem with it.
However, if someone is taking advantage of someone with dementia and forcing them to vote, then that is entirely illegal.
Most of them don’t have the capability of getting to the voting office. Competency tests carry a lot of legal import and take time to get. By time you get to stage 3/4 dementia, life expectancy is low.
My mom has moderate dementia and my dad will soon help her vote in the Canadian election. Im ok with it because they are politically aligned so she will vote how she would have before but I could see it being a problem in relationships where people have different political views
I think its 100% guranteed adult citizens right. They are responsible for continuing to pay taxes. How could a vote be incorrect is the better question.
I don’t want to be a fatalist but what can you do in the face of overwhelming stupidity? Maybe if the US is so dumb to vote to be represented by fascists the we deserve to deported or concentration camped, or shot like dogs in the street, or whatever fresh torturous hell the awhile at the top can think of. So many saw this coming. We have been warned about everything. We have no ability to see beyond our tiny meaningless lives. So yeah, fucking let it burn.
It would be a much smaller problem if felons couldn’t hold public office. In fact, ban anyone in an ongoing criminal case from holding or running for any public office? How has America gone 250 years without getting this done?
26th amendment- all citizens age 18 or older are permitted to vote! What you are referring to is what conservatives are afraid of. The citizens voting. They are worried people are being “helped” to vote. The real question is what are they afraid of?? Free, fair elections are what separates the United States from many countries around the world. The people in power can’t control the outcome when a lot of people vote and there is a paper trail that is public that shows the results.
Like it’s irrelevant since they’re a miniscule percentage of the population.
Them holding office? A bit more concerning, but… it would be a dangerous precedent to start barring people from office on medical grounds, because at one time or another, holding a position incompatible to the mainstream narrative has been deemed a pathology (being gay, as a quick-and-easy example, was once a “disorder”).
What do you think about the fact that people WITHOUT DEMENTIA DON’T BOTHER TO VOTE?
A full third of eligible voters didn’t vote in the last election. That’s like 80 million people … how does that compare to the several thousand people (or whatever) with dementia that randomly vote … considering that they probably more or less balance each other out with opposing votes).
But a little less concerned than the fact that those with the same (or more severe) mental status can be in office and are allowed to make executive decisions.
It’s not great, but lets be honest for a second about the actual severity of that issue, namely in that it’s nowhere near as severe as it might sound.
If every person in the U.S. over 65 with a level of dementia (~7M) voted, they’d only account for ~4.5% of the voting turnout. But that’s making a big assumption that they’ll all somehow get out there and vote. In reality, only about 2/3 people vote, so they’re really only making up about 3% of the voter turnout even if we’re being generous. After all, mentally healthy people skip out on voting too, but you think a dementia patient is going to be diligent about it?. 3% isn’t insignificant, but it’s not terrible.
Additionally, if someone with advanced dementia is getting to the polls, they’re likely being guided by a family member who can assist them. While you can argue the ethics of it, it’s likely if that family member has encouraged that person to go to the polls, they’ve been coaching and guiding their decisions for a while. I’d therefor assume the vote is really coming from the family member more than the dementia patient.
My point is it’s going to be a really small portion of the population making dementia ridden votes all of their own accord. Certainly not in large enough blocs to deliberately swing the election one way or another.
Like when you just throw that idea out there of course it doesn’t sound great, however, you have to consider the alternatives, and frankly I don’t trust purging people with Alzheimer’s from voting won’t be abused
So yeah it’s not great, but it’s better than what the solution would entail
I think the issue would be, where do you draw the line? They are citizens who have the right to vote, and one could argue that they are not much different than people who have severe tunnel-vision and vote for a candidate over one singular issue, or just because he’s a man, or people who voted against Obama because they sincerely believed that he isn’t an American citizen. All those people can vote; they can vote for whoever they want for whatever reason. And then you have people who have psychotic disorders or severe mood disorders who may struggle with rational thought or remaining oriented. Should they have to prove to…someone? Who? that they’re competent enough to vote? So, while it’s not entirely ideal for someone with severely impaired reasoning skills to help decide who leads the country, people already vote for a variety of reasons, motivations, etc.
I think if you believe in democracy you must first come to terms with the knowledge that millions of people will be casting votes with seriously compromised judgment, for one reason or another. If it’s not from dementia, it can be from social media misinformation, a manipulative attack ad, superstition, ignorance, or just plain stupidity. In America there will always be an enormous uninformed, emotional electorate and including those with dementia doesn’t really change the equation in any meaningful way.
It’s complicated. I think protecting voting rights is vital—but so is protecting the integrity of the process. The key may lie in safeguards around how ballots are cast (especially absentee or mail-in) rather than banning a whole group from voting outright. And maybe there needs to be more clarity and consistency in how we handle mental incapacity legally and ethically.
Without additional information about the hypothetical dementia-impacted persons conduct, I feel about the same as I feel about roughly 60-75% of the population at large. I’m dead serious.
Would people with advanced dementia even know what the hell they’re doing at a voting booth? I mean, having mental lapses and old timer’s cognitive failures are one thing, but people with advanced dementia aren’t going about their day to day lives unassisted. That’s why you never see the famous ones out in public after a while.
Dementia voters are no worse than uninformed voters. If you vote a certain way because someone told you too, you’re a bad voter. Get informed and vote YOUR way.
Can vote and remembering to vote is 2 different actions.
My grandmother COULD have voted 2008 and 2012 but my grandfather knew she would have an extremely difficult time voting because she would not know what she was doing and what to do and start crying.
not as bad as someone with dementia literally being the president 💀 but in all realness, it’s so bad that all elderly can vote. I work in elderly home care, and seeing the way they fall for any and all junk mail around voting time is horrifying.
OK so Voter ID is hated on because “It makes it hard for the voters to vote”, but yet we’re now worried that voters with advanced dementia are going out to vote.
So it’s easier to vote with advanced dementia than it is to get an ID card?
Which is it? Is it TOO EASY to vote and even people who can’t function on a daily basis without assistance are doing it ? Or is it TOO HARD to vote and functioning adults tha can find their way to a poling station somehow don’t have the resources to go to the local DMV to get an ID?”
I feel just fine about it. It is an absolutely tiny problem, and I refuse to support disenfranchisement of any eligible citizen. Just look at who is in power today, and realize that if we allow this sort of slippery slope they can use all sorts of arguments against people like you and me being allowed to vote.
The fact that people who dislike Trump are being labeled as if they have some sort of mental disorder by the MAGA fascists should be warning enough for anybody.
I saw an older guy bring his mom to vote in the presidential election last year. She definitely looked out of it and my guess had no clue who she was voting for and her son was pointing out who to vote for. Seemed kinda fucked up imo.
Have you ever met someone with advanced dementia? They’re probably not voting at all unless a relative pushes them to and literally guides them and their choice.
My great aunt had dementia the last few years of her life and that lady wasn’t rushing out to vote.
Seriously, though, any system to evaluate people as “unfit” to vote will quickly go terribly south, so best to just leave things be. They’re a very small number anyway.
More people should vote. Dementia voting isn’t so common that they’re changing outcomes– and if it was, it’d still be a good idea to ensure their interests are represented in government.
Take away anyone’s right to vote, for any reason, and you disenfranchise them, make them an easy target for ill-intentioned political movements, and set them up to be culled the instant a sociopath is charged with their custody.
It’s bad enough these people must lose their legal and financial autonomy to survive in this country. Taking away their representation as well places them at the complete mercy of their caregivers– if they’re lucky enough to have them.
It’s only 2% of the overall population, and many dementia patients are in the early stages so they can vote when they are cognizant of what they are doing.
If their votes reflect what they want, then their dementia can’t be that bad yet. If they’re voting arbitrarily and don’t understand what they’re doing, I figure they’ll cancel each other out.
Honestly if real life advanced dementia patients have the wherewithal to meet requirements to vote (be it traveling to polling place and operating machine or properly filling out and mailing an at home ballot) they have either moments of extreme clarity or are not actually advanced dementia patients
This is kinda an odd question. If you’ve been around anyone with advanced dementia, unless they are being 100% manipulated (and I don’t mean by media, I mean someone basically committing voter fraud voting for them), there’s absolutely no way they will even know elections are happening much less be able to get to a polling place and cast a vote.
People with advanced dementia represent a very small percentage of the populace, and assuming they are easily influenced by others there’s not a huge reason to think they’d ever be particularly aligned as a group, so the influence they have on elections is likely tiny.
The idea of giving everyone the right to vote is that we know, for a fact, that there will be people with the right to vote that will not exercise it responsibly. But the alternative is someone determines what makes someone eligible to vote, and historically that has almost always resulted in abuse of power to suppress someone’s ability to vote.
What does that actually matter? They aren’t writing the laws. They check one box or another box off on a ballot and that’s the end of that. Any notion of restricting someone’s right to vote should be met with the utmost adversity.
I would rather everyone get the chance to vote than deny one person the opportunity to vote. I think this kind of thing is a slippery slope.
I actually think this is exploited more than illegal immigrants voting. People make their wards vote a certain way, happens all the time, but hard to stop in my opinion.
I’m on the fence. On the one hand, they probably can’t make an informed decision. On the other hand, everyone deserves the right to vote.
If we start infringing on that right, it could easily snowball into a bigger argument until we are assigning “mental illness” to anyone and everyone who disagrees with those in power.
This current administration would be the first to jump on this claiming women, LGBT, Hispanic, and even just average leftists are all too mentally ill to vote. Than they would take that right away as quickly as possible.
My father has advanced dementia and would not be capable of voting. He can’t tell you his name, he can’t sign anything, he can’t fill anything out. There’s no way any significant number of these patients are voting.
IFF there was an unbiased way to ensure people understood:
– The facts of what they were voting on
– Who they were voting for
– What these people said they would do and what they cannot do out of the things they said they would do
– etc.
Where voting eligibility was rooted in that, then I would prefer it. This would rule out people with dementia, among other people. Since we can’t really do the above, the second-best system we have is just letting people vote after a random age.
They’re a group of people that deserve to be represented. As long as they’re able to understand the ballot they can vote. They’re just choosing a representative and probably voting what they used to vote for for ages. Unless the parties have changed drastically
I’m sadly in favor of it. While it’s easy to say that there should be a line, where to draw it is much harder, and could definitely be weaponized to disenfranchise neurodivergents.
About that same as people without education to understand what they vote for. They are both bad, but likely a necessary evil as someone would be biased when taking those rights away.
I think limiting voting based on cognitive ability, disability or anything else is a slippery slope and will lead to more voter suppression and ultimately would be worse than how we have it now, where it’s such a limited population of people that have dementia and also vote. Mental fitness including dementia screening should be stricter for those HOLDING office however.
UGH why do I assume that you’re a fucking asshole? Maybe because people with full blown dementia can’t remember how to turn a door handle to get outside let alone remember to vote? stfu
Politicians need an age limit, say, 60! By then they are bazzilionaires anyway!! Conversely, you can only be an elected official in any capacity for 25 years.
I used to work in long term care and let me break it down how it works (in Colorado though I am guessing most places are similar).
Step one: Ballot info books are delivered to the facility usually addressed to individual residents as this is their address on file.
Step two: Staff will help those residents who have a hard time reading, read the ballot books if asked.
Step three: Election volunteers will come to the facility to hand out ballots (or in colorado to bring mail in ballots). The election volunteers are not allowed to help people fill out the ballots. They are there to make sure that everyone who wants to vote gets a fair chance to do so.
Step four: staff will help fill out ballots for those that need help.
Once finished the ballots are either mailed in or if it is done when the volunteers are there, they usually have a secure box that the ballots go in.
Personally I have no problem with ANYONE exercising their right to vote. Dementia, disabled, whatever. It is a fundamental right in the USA that everyone eligible to vote can vote. I think once we start deciding that certain groups are unable to vote we slide into a world where the government in power decides who can vote.
I also think that people with dementia are not the helpless crazy people that you think they are. I worked with a number of people who couldn’t feed themselves or remember their kids names but had very strong and logical opinions about issues.
People with dementia are already pretty dehumanized by the public at large and we should do nothing to assist with further dehumanizing them.
Comments
I’m more concerned that people with any level of dementia can hold public office (edit to add: this applies to anyone on either side of the aisle. Not talking about one person specifically)
Why not? They are also getting elected.
I don’t think it would make that much of a difference, they’d probably vote the same without it
That’s better than letting the party in power determine which people have dementia and therefore are ineligible to vote.
It’s a good question. I mean, this is definitely a bad thing. I just can’t see many of them getting out to a voting booth, however.
What would they possibly do wrong? Elect a maniac?
I don’t see how that’s any different than the majority of the voting population, so I have zero problem with it.
Less concerned than the fact they can run a country
I suppose if they can be president, they should be able to vote…
I’m more concerned that they can be President.
No worse than the illiterate Fox”News” zombies that vote.
The uneducated can also vote. And I don’t mean people that didn’t go to school I mean people that didn’t read a thing about the election of people who vote on one issue. I honestly don’t see much of a difference.
Where do you draw the line?
Bipolar people can vote.. but not if they’re bipolar AND depressed? 🤔
Or forgetful but not too forgetful?
Unless it been medically and legally or one or the other. I am thinking nothing about the voter registration rules or law can do to Stop it.
It’s not a good idea, but that’s America, you’re free to make sound and poor decisions.
I don’t care. Morons vote, people suffering from dementia can’t do any worse.
Everyone knows 46 had a seriously diminished capacity that got worse towards the end. I know everybody will cry about something relating to Trump but we seriously do not know who was running the country. That should scare either party
I feel worse that they are also driving on roads
Well, that’s fair since they can also run for office and win
Don’t they have proxy voting?
I work for an investment company and most of our clients are elderly. It is unfortunate when we have to try to do security checks or go through some information with them and they can’t keep up.
They can, though, just have a power of attorney.
There’s not enough of them to make any difference
On what grounds would you want to disenfranchise them?
yes, they technically can. but, do they? Have you ever met someone with ‘advanced dementia’? let’s be realistic about this. it’s not a problem that needs anyone to think about it.
I’m less concerned over the dementia voters, than the ones voting who are clueless, gullible and uneducated on the facts.
Well, if they can be a US President, they should be at least allowed to vote. They still better than 51% of the so called able minded.
If you haven’t noticed that the general public is mostly dunces and that’s the real problem…..well…..
But seriously, our fellows are mostly not capable of understanding any complex topics. Even most people “good” at their jobs are good in a “I put the square peg in the square hole and now I’m efficient at it” kind of way.
Those dementia people aren’t getting out to vote nearly as much.
THEY CAN DRIVE, TOO.
I’m not trying to be disgusting and judgmental. It’s hard reasoning with a smart, grown woman who has no reason left…
The USA has one as president, so its only natural
I seriously doubt there’s enough people with advanced dementia voting to make any sort of political difference. A very small percentage of people have dementia full stop. I don’t think you realise how debilitating advanced dementia is if you think people are going out and voting. Advanced pretty much means you’re on death’s door.
Thought-provoking question. My gut instinct is to say they shouldn’t because you should be “of sound mind” to vote. I’m not sure how that would be decided, though, and the potential for abuse is troubling. How would this be handled?
I think this is similar to people with serious intellectual disabilities voting. If someone has been assessed to be intellectually at a five-year-old level, is it right that they are allowed to vote? Doesn’t this just mean that they will be influenced by their carer, family member, etc., so that person is essentially voting twice? Or will be voting essentially randomly? It’s a complicated issue.
What exactly is your concern?
Just about like I do about having people with advanced dementia serving as POTUS.
Considering that the average american voter is an ignorant, racist, sexist moron, I don’t fret too much over people with dementia.
It is the cost of democracy, less of a factor than allowing idiots to vote. Where is the line and who gets to decide?
Just because they have dementia doesn’t mean they are no longer citizens. If they have the mental capacity to register to vote and to cast their vote then I see no problem with it.
However, if someone is taking advantage of someone with dementia and forcing them to vote, then that is entirely illegal.
Most of them don’t have the capability of getting to the voting office. Competency tests carry a lot of legal import and take time to get. By time you get to stage 3/4 dementia, life expectancy is low.
My mom has moderate dementia and my dad will soon help her vote in the Canadian election. Im ok with it because they are politically aligned so she will vote how she would have before but I could see it being a problem in relationships where people have different political views
I think its 100% guranteed adult citizens right. They are responsible for continuing to pay taxes. How could a vote be incorrect is the better question.
I don’t want to be a fatalist but what can you do in the face of overwhelming stupidity? Maybe if the US is so dumb to vote to be represented by fascists the we deserve to deported or concentration camped, or shot like dogs in the street, or whatever fresh torturous hell the awhile at the top can think of. So many saw this coming. We have been warned about everything. We have no ability to see beyond our tiny meaningless lives. So yeah, fucking let it burn.
I’m more worried about them voting for the candidate with dementia.
It would be a much smaller problem if felons couldn’t hold public office. In fact, ban anyone in an ongoing criminal case from holding or running for any public office? How has America gone 250 years without getting this done?
26th amendment- all citizens age 18 or older are permitted to vote! What you are referring to is what conservatives are afraid of. The citizens voting. They are worried people are being “helped” to vote. The real question is what are they afraid of?? Free, fair elections are what separates the United States from many countries around the world. The people in power can’t control the outcome when a lot of people vote and there is a paper trail that is public that shows the results.
Like it’s irrelevant since they’re a miniscule percentage of the population.
Them holding office? A bit more concerning, but… it would be a dangerous precedent to start barring people from office on medical grounds, because at one time or another, holding a position incompatible to the mainstream narrative has been deemed a pathology (being gay, as a quick-and-easy example, was once a “disorder”).
Stupid people get to vote, and there are more of them.
Vote, that is the concern here? Hell those types run the country!
I mean illiterate people can vote, people who never read the news can vote, mentally disabled people can vote etc etc…
We elected one president, so why not let them vote too?
They can also hold public office.
Think about that for a moment. People will vote for individuals with dementia to serve in public office.
And it’s bipartisan! So everyone is regarded.
Not very many people have advanced dementia.
It’d make way more sense to be worried about regular people; like the ones which make up 2/3 of the voting population; and their uninformed votes.
They are entitled to vote.
What do you think about the fact that people WITHOUT DEMENTIA DON’T BOTHER TO VOTE?
A full third of eligible voters didn’t vote in the last election. That’s like 80 million people … how does that compare to the several thousand people (or whatever) with dementia that randomly vote … considering that they probably more or less balance each other out with opposing votes).
How do you think trump got elected?
I’m more concerned with the people that don’t have dementia but are just plain stupid.
Big deal, they can be President.
Definitely concerned.
But a little less concerned than the fact that those with the same (or more severe) mental status can be in office and are allowed to make executive decisions.
So, you don’t think Joe Biden should have been allowed to vote 🤔?
This is what people deserve for refusing to cure aging
you mean all the people that voted for Trump?
It’s not great, but lets be honest for a second about the actual severity of that issue, namely in that it’s nowhere near as severe as it might sound.
If every person in the U.S. over 65 with a level of dementia (~7M) voted, they’d only account for ~4.5% of the voting turnout. But that’s making a big assumption that they’ll all somehow get out there and vote. In reality, only about 2/3 people vote, so they’re really only making up about 3% of the voter turnout even if we’re being generous. After all, mentally healthy people skip out on voting too, but you think a dementia patient is going to be diligent about it?. 3% isn’t insignificant, but it’s not terrible.
Additionally, if someone with advanced dementia is getting to the polls, they’re likely being guided by a family member who can assist them. While you can argue the ethics of it, it’s likely if that family member has encouraged that person to go to the polls, they’ve been coaching and guiding their decisions for a while. I’d therefor assume the vote is really coming from the family member more than the dementia patient.
My point is it’s going to be a really small portion of the population making dementia ridden votes all of their own accord. Certainly not in large enough blocs to deliberately swing the election one way or another.
Nothing in the rules says they can’t.
Like when you just throw that idea out there of course it doesn’t sound great, however, you have to consider the alternatives, and frankly I don’t trust purging people with Alzheimer’s from voting won’t be abused
So yeah it’s not great, but it’s better than what the solution would entail
If the felon can be POTUS, then my Alzheimer’s afflicted uncle should be able to vote.
Same way I feel about 18 year olds:
There is no fair way to determine fitness to participate in our democracy so the franchise must be made available to all adults.
Oddly enough, my dad’s support for The Orange One intensified around the time he got his diagnosis…
I think the issue would be, where do you draw the line? They are citizens who have the right to vote, and one could argue that they are not much different than people who have severe tunnel-vision and vote for a candidate over one singular issue, or just because he’s a man, or people who voted against Obama because they sincerely believed that he isn’t an American citizen. All those people can vote; they can vote for whoever they want for whatever reason. And then you have people who have psychotic disorders or severe mood disorders who may struggle with rational thought or remaining oriented. Should they have to prove to…someone? Who? that they’re competent enough to vote? So, while it’s not entirely ideal for someone with severely impaired reasoning skills to help decide who leads the country, people already vote for a variety of reasons, motivations, etc.
Vote? They are elected.
I think if you believe in democracy you must first come to terms with the knowledge that millions of people will be casting votes with seriously compromised judgment, for one reason or another. If it’s not from dementia, it can be from social media misinformation, a manipulative attack ad, superstition, ignorance, or just plain stupidity. In America there will always be an enormous uninformed, emotional electorate and including those with dementia doesn’t really change the equation in any meaningful way.
Which Senator/Congressperson are you thinking of specifically?
It’s complicated. I think protecting voting rights is vital—but so is protecting the integrity of the process. The key may lie in safeguards around how ballots are cast (especially absentee or mail-in) rather than banning a whole group from voting outright. And maybe there needs to be more clarity and consistency in how we handle mental incapacity legally and ethically.
How do they manage to work the voting machines?
Without additional information about the hypothetical dementia-impacted persons conduct, I feel about the same as I feel about roughly 60-75% of the population at large. I’m dead serious.
I’d rather have that than there be some “threshold” that determines if you are mentally well enough to vote. Who makes that decision?
I am concerned that people who are too stupid to breathe can vote.
Would people with advanced dementia even know what the hell they’re doing at a voting booth? I mean, having mental lapses and old timer’s cognitive failures are one thing, but people with advanced dementia aren’t going about their day to day lives unassisted. That’s why you never see the famous ones out in public after a while.
What a stupid question.
Dementia voters are no worse than uninformed voters. If you vote a certain way because someone told you too, you’re a bad voter. Get informed and vote YOUR way.
Can vote and remembering to vote is 2 different actions.
My grandmother COULD have voted 2008 and 2012 but my grandfather knew she would have an extremely difficult time voting because she would not know what she was doing and what to do and start crying.
I would prefer people who don’t know what they are doing at this point to those who think they do.
“How would you judge would can and can’t vote unless you just let everyone vote?”
I’m concerned that 100% of those votes are for Democrats.
Worry about the 30+% of people not even voting
After living a grandma who is suffering from serious dementia this is worrisome. I didn’t know about that.
Is there a definition when dementia is too strong for voting?
Can’t be any worse than the votes that are cast now!
not as bad as someone with dementia literally being the president 💀 but in all realness, it’s so bad that all elderly can vote. I work in elderly home care, and seeing the way they fall for any and all junk mail around voting time is horrifying.
Probably just a rounding error. They’d probably forget to vote anyway.
If they cannot do it themselves due to mental cognitive decline, then I dont think they should vote.
OK so Voter ID is hated on because “It makes it hard for the voters to vote”, but yet we’re now worried that voters with advanced dementia are going out to vote.
So it’s easier to vote with advanced dementia than it is to get an ID card?
Which is it? Is it TOO EASY to vote and even people who can’t function on a daily basis without assistance are doing it ? Or is it TOO HARD to vote and functioning adults tha can find their way to a poling station somehow don’t have the resources to go to the local DMV to get an ID?”
If they can make it to the polling place then I say they’ve earned it
Couldn’t be any worse than a President with advanced dementia. And yet, here we are.
Considering the current state of our government that’s the least of our worries.
Yeah, like others are saying, I don’t care how they vote, just no running for office!
I feel just fine about it. It is an absolutely tiny problem, and I refuse to support disenfranchisement of any eligible citizen. Just look at who is in power today, and realize that if we allow this sort of slippery slope they can use all sorts of arguments against people like you and me being allowed to vote.
The fact that people who dislike Trump are being labeled as if they have some sort of mental disorder by the MAGA fascists should be warning enough for anybody.
And hold public office. Biden and now Trump have no business running a garden club, let alone, controlling nukes.
They can be president so, why not! 😬
I saw an older guy bring his mom to vote in the presidential election last year. She definitely looked out of it and my guess had no clue who she was voting for and her son was pointing out who to vote for. Seemed kinda fucked up imo.
Have you ever met someone with advanced dementia? They’re probably not voting at all unless a relative pushes them to and literally guides them and their choice.
My great aunt had dementia the last few years of her life and that lady wasn’t rushing out to vote.
I don’t know. What was the question again?
They can be President, so why not?
Seriously, though, any system to evaluate people as “unfit” to vote will quickly go terribly south, so best to just leave things be. They’re a very small number anyway.
More people should vote. Dementia voting isn’t so common that they’re changing outcomes– and if it was, it’d still be a good idea to ensure their interests are represented in government.
Take away anyone’s right to vote, for any reason, and you disenfranchise them, make them an easy target for ill-intentioned political movements, and set them up to be culled the instant a sociopath is charged with their custody.
It’s bad enough these people must lose their legal and financial autonomy to survive in this country. Taking away their representation as well places them at the complete mercy of their caregivers– if they’re lucky enough to have them.
Not as angry as with the people without dementia that can vote, and vote on the worst choices all because they hate everyone else and themselves.
Well, that explains the last election
It’s only 2% of the overall population, and many dementia patients are in the early stages so they can vote when they are cognizant of what they are doing.
You either believe in democracy and it’s values (such as equality), or you don’t.
If their votes reflect what they want, then their dementia can’t be that bad yet. If they’re voting arbitrarily and don’t understand what they’re doing, I figure they’ll cancel each other out.
It amounts to a rounding error.
It’s either a democracy, or it isn’t 🤷♀️
Honestly if real life advanced dementia patients have the wherewithal to meet requirements to vote (be it traveling to polling place and operating machine or properly filling out and mailing an at home ballot) they have either moments of extreme clarity or are not actually advanced dementia patients
People with advanced dementia can be President.
This is kinda an odd question. If you’ve been around anyone with advanced dementia, unless they are being 100% manipulated (and I don’t mean by media, I mean someone basically committing voter fraud voting for them), there’s absolutely no way they will even know elections are happening much less be able to get to a polling place and cast a vote.
There are a lot more people with advanced stupid than advanced dementia. That is much more damaging.
If Trump is allowed to vote anyone should be.
This thread is full of r/USdefaultism Impressive.
People with advanced dementia represent a very small percentage of the populace, and assuming they are easily influenced by others there’s not a huge reason to think they’d ever be particularly aligned as a group, so the influence they have on elections is likely tiny.
The idea of giving everyone the right to vote is that we know, for a fact, that there will be people with the right to vote that will not exercise it responsibly. But the alternative is someone determines what makes someone eligible to vote, and historically that has almost always resulted in abuse of power to suppress someone’s ability to vote.
I’m more concerned about those with dementia being in office .
So you want to give MAGA a cognitive test, sounds good
Well there’s one as president
In all honesty, I have my doubts that a lot of people that advanced vote at all. But I’d be curious to see some data on it.
Did you know they can be president too?
It’s unavoidable. Because establishing a grounds for disqualifying someone from voting over something so subjective is begging for abuse.
Also, when it gets bad enough, they aren’t going to be capable of doing it regardless of their legal right to do so.
Better than people with advanced dementia actually running.
People with advanced dementia voting is far far less of a problem than people with advanced dementia holding office.
A dementia patient is currently president.
…or be president.
Meh. They let one pretend to be president for the four years between President Trump’s terms, so it doesn’t matter much in comparison.
Why the fuck would I worry myself about this, in addition to the millions of other things to think about.
It’s fine, a lot of the time they’re voting for people with advanced dementia.
People with dementia can’t vote but they can hold a public office, felons can’t vote but they can be the president. Feels backwards to me.
What does that actually matter? They aren’t writing the laws. They check one box or another box off on a ballot and that’s the end of that. Any notion of restricting someone’s right to vote should be met with the utmost adversity.
I would rather everyone get the chance to vote than deny one person the opportunity to vote. I think this kind of thing is a slippery slope.
I actually think this is exploited more than illegal immigrants voting. People make their wards vote a certain way, happens all the time, but hard to stop in my opinion.
They are voting for other people with dementia
Almost as badly as I do about them getting elected.
Free country innit
I’m on the fence. On the one hand, they probably can’t make an informed decision. On the other hand, everyone deserves the right to vote.
If we start infringing on that right, it could easily snowball into a bigger argument until we are assigning “mental illness” to anyone and everyone who disagrees with those in power.
This current administration would be the first to jump on this claiming women, LGBT, Hispanic, and even just average leftists are all too mentally ill to vote. Than they would take that right away as quickly as possible.
This is cruel lie.
My father has advanced dementia and would not be capable of voting. He can’t tell you his name, he can’t sign anything, he can’t fill anything out. There’s no way any significant number of these patients are voting.
I will gladly support a cognitive ability test for all voters as long as I get to write and administer the test.
I’m seriously worried about his health. You shouldn’t be that fat and screaming so loud.
People like Biden should not be able to vote.
Not great, but arguing that a certain level of mental acuity should preclude someone from voting is a dangerous path to go down.
If RFK JR has his way, Autistic people won’t be allowed to vote….
IFF there was an unbiased way to ensure people understood:
– The facts of what they were voting on
– Who they were voting for
– What these people said they would do and what they cannot do out of the things they said they would do
– etc.
Where voting eligibility was rooted in that, then I would prefer it. This would rule out people with dementia, among other people. Since we can’t really do the above, the second-best system we have is just letting people vote after a random age.
They’re a group of people that deserve to be represented. As long as they’re able to understand the ballot they can vote. They’re just choosing a representative and probably voting what they used to vote for for ages. Unless the parties have changed drastically
Used to work with intellectually and mentally challenged adults and they could vote.
It’s the risk of democracy.
I’m sadly in favor of it. While it’s easy to say that there should be a line, where to draw it is much harder, and could definitely be weaponized to disenfranchise neurodivergents.
I think it explains a lot 😂
About that same as people without education to understand what they vote for. They are both bad, but likely a necessary evil as someone would be biased when taking those rights away.
Vote? Hell they can be in office.
We let absolute walnuts vote, there’s no stipulation that you have to be intelligent to vote.
honestly, what is the difference between (if we ask them) a dementia person and someone who knows zero about any issues?
I think limiting voting based on cognitive ability, disability or anything else is a slippery slope and will lead to more voter suppression and ultimately would be worse than how we have it now, where it’s such a limited population of people that have dementia and also vote. Mental fitness including dementia screening should be stricter for those HOLDING office however.
I support it fully.
Every legal citizen should have the vote. Permanently. Period. Yes, even felons.
There should never be any cause or any mechanism by which the govt can revoke your right to vote. Never.
UGH why do I assume that you’re a fucking asshole? Maybe because people with full blown dementia can’t remember how to turn a door handle to get outside let alone remember to vote? stfu
Politicians need an age limit, say, 60! By then they are bazzilionaires anyway!! Conversely, you can only be an elected official in any capacity for 25 years.
I used to work in long term care and let me break it down how it works (in Colorado though I am guessing most places are similar).
Step one: Ballot info books are delivered to the facility usually addressed to individual residents as this is their address on file.
Step two: Staff will help those residents who have a hard time reading, read the ballot books if asked.
Step three: Election volunteers will come to the facility to hand out ballots (or in colorado to bring mail in ballots). The election volunteers are not allowed to help people fill out the ballots. They are there to make sure that everyone who wants to vote gets a fair chance to do so.
Step four: staff will help fill out ballots for those that need help.
Once finished the ballots are either mailed in or if it is done when the volunteers are there, they usually have a secure box that the ballots go in.
Personally I have no problem with ANYONE exercising their right to vote. Dementia, disabled, whatever. It is a fundamental right in the USA that everyone eligible to vote can vote. I think once we start deciding that certain groups are unable to vote we slide into a world where the government in power decides who can vote.
I also think that people with dementia are not the helpless crazy people that you think they are. I worked with a number of people who couldn’t feed themselves or remember their kids names but had very strong and logical opinions about issues.
People with dementia are already pretty dehumanized by the public at large and we should do nothing to assist with further dehumanizing them.
I’m more disturbed that they let people with advanced dementia continue be President.
We didn’t stop half the US with dementia voting for tRump so why make a big deal of it now
Or occupy the White House?
Feels bad but not worse than the fact they can become and maintain the presidency.
Not quite as concerned as I am about the people with advanced dementia who can hold office
Not as bad as I feel about one of them being president currently.
Better than I feel about one being our president.
Less concerned than over the fact that they can remain in office.
Well then, that would leave a lot of Trumplican supporters out including Trump himself!