General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow are the developmentally disabled able to vote?
We have a home for developmentally disabled people in my neighborhood. Another resident and I were wondering how they voted (if they did). Do staff at the home give them some pointers in simple terms about the voting process? Who the candidates are and what they stand for? I don't think the staff would be able to go into the voting booth with them. But if they are citizens they have a right to vote.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)It's actually been a controversy more than once in places where they have taken people from group homes to vote who clearly didn't possess the ability to understand what they were doing.
Where do you cross the line from exercising a right to someone using them to cast a vote the way the "helper" thinks they should vote? I don't know, but I would rather err on the side of not disenfranchising anyone.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)now that I think about it.
blogslut
(38,016 posts)They provide classes, transportation and guidance for an array of modern-life situations.
kimbutgar
(21,188 posts)I got him registered for an absentee ballot. I save all the mailers I get and we go over them together. Then I read him the description in the voters phamplet and discuss how to vote. I showed him a sample ballot and how to fill out. He's voted in every election now. The last he looked over the mailers and voters into book and filled out his own ballot. A couple of the ones he needed more information and asked me how I was going to vote.