*Actually she doesn't know my brother didn't register her last year for the midterms - I'm very angry about it So what she has slight dementia? She's not demented enough not to want to vote Democrat (=and against Trump). I know because she and I discussed it by phone several times and she felt strongly.

What's more, not only was every Dem vote in FLorida especially important in itself, but it was important to help her feel engaged in the world - that she was "making a difference" even at her advanced age.

Note: with her macular degeneration induced blindness, she needs help with such things - help I was in no position to provide. I pleaded with him and SIL but I'm guessing their
political opinions (liberal) are mostly hot air. I think they just didn't want to bother.
When I questioned them (they didn't seem to have thought of it at all), they spoke of her reduced clarity.

I notice they didn't object to getting her to "approve" a bunch of beneficial (to them and other bro) questionable payments. Ones contrary to Dad's will - which she never even read - and which cost my sons and me very large sums. For THAT she was competent?

Sorry, I know I've kvetched about that before, but the contrast in issues of competence are so extreme. Being increasingly helpless, I think she's afraid to oppose anything they say or do. Anyhow, I think it was very wrong of them not to apply for her absentee ballot.

A Scottish friend told me her mother actually flew back from Dubai where she now lives with her second husband, in order to cast a vote against separation from GB in that last major referendum. She could have delegated the task to my friend's brother who still lives in Scotland, but even with (so far as I know) good relations between them, she didn't want to run the risk that he might not honor her wishes. That wasn't an issue of competence, but of the importance of every vote counting in major elections and having one's voice heard.

Again, what do YOU think ought to disqualify elderly voters with any cognitive impairments and how should it be decided?

The is no age limit for voting, and the notion, as far I can tell, is obscene.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
The is no age limit for voting, and the notion, as far I can tell, is obscene.

Not age, but the "cognitive impairments" would be the disqualifier, Daniel.

In fact, I wonder if they are for others. Who if any, are not allowed to vote on account of mental function?

A mental function test seems like a very slippery slope to me. "My grandmother is no longer competent to vote because she doesn't vote for X." That would definitely occur, and would not be good. What sort of mental functioning would be banned? Dementia? Schizophrenia? with or without medication? addiction?

From what I've seen of dementia, the odds that an incapacitated person would be taken to the polls, navigate through the line and check-in process and manage to cast a vote declines in direct proportion to the disease's advancement.

Bottom line: I'd rather see voting made easier, not harder. If it results in a few ballots being miscast, so be it.

Almost every state has some form of legislation that bans those with mental impairment from voting. I don't agree with these laws.

In my mother's case (described in long post above), being almost completely blind, she'd need to file an absentee ballot.

My brother and SIL (living near her in FL) didn't do it in the midterms. They criticise Trump a lot, but when the importance of our mom's voting was brought up, cited her slight dementia as the reason not to go through it. Now I'm wondering if they themselves bothered to vote. (disgusted)

Amanda, it's an interesting academic question but I'm afraid the answer is all too easy. The local board of elections decides. And there is no "cognitive test" required of American voters, at least none to my knowledge.

It's statistical ... sure, there are "cognitively impaired" individuals casting ballots, but are there enough of them to materially change election outcomes? If the answer is "not yet," then we don't have to worry about it just yet.