[NYAPRS Enews] AP: Advocates Push For Voting Rights For People w/ Psych Disabilities

[Matt Canuteson]

Advocates Push For Voting Rights For People w/ Psychiatric Disabilities

By DENA POTTER - Associated Press   November 3, 2008 

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Clyde Hoy has only missed one election. It was
2002, and the manic depression he had battled for nearly 20 years had
taken hold again, landing him in a state psychiatric hospital.

"I wanted to vote, but I felt that I didn't have any right at all," said
the 48-year-old Hoy. "I asked and nobody gave me an answer. There wasn't
an option."

Advocates are working to change that with a nationwide effort to make
sure those with mental disabilities know their rights and exercise them
on Election Day.

For months, state advocates have visited psychiatric hospitals, nursing
homes and other facilities to help those with mental disabilities
register to vote or fill out absentee ballots. But others are concerned
that allowing outsiders to help - whether assisting with ballots or
driving voters to the polls - could subject people to undue influence.

Members of both parties often accuse opponents of trolling for votes in
hospitals and nursing homes, notorious places for voter fraud. A former
Pennsylvania congressman who was convicted in 1998 of filling out
absentee ballots in the names of nursing home residents, and similar
accusations often surface at the local level.

"They have a right to vote, but it is highly unethical for anyone from
any office, state or otherwise, to go into these facilities unrequested
by the patients or family members, to help them vote," said Republican
Virginia Sen. Steve Martin. "If they were competent to do it, they
wouldn't be needing this help anyway."

But advocates say that kind of thinking has stigmatized the mentally ill
for decades and highlights the importance of reminding them - and
election officials - of their rights.

All but 11 states have some type of law limiting voting rights for
individuals based on competence.

More than a dozen states prohibit individuals deemed incompetent or
under a guardian's care from voting. Another 20 states ban voting only
if a court has determined that the individual specifically lacks the
capacity to vote.

Laws in some states still bar voting by people referred to using
outdated terms such as "idiots" or the "insane," but those are rarely
enforced.

"Everyone assumes that if you're in a mental hospital you're totally out
of it, you're not functioning at any level, which is just not true,"
said Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights
Network.

Advocates said those in psychiatric hospitals and other facilities often
are more in tune with what's going on in elections because they have
more time to watch television, read the newspapers and research the
candidates.

They also have much more at stake because they often are dependent on
the government, said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director of the
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

"It's very frustrating to see situations where they're barred from
voting on issues that have such an impact on their life," Mathis said.

In 1998, election officials in New Jersey refused to count ballots from
residents of a state psychiatric hospital unless the voters could prove
they were competent, which later was ruled unconstitutional.

Election officials in Virginia interpreted the law to say that only
people with physical disabilities could cast absentee ballots. A lawsuit
led to that law being expanded this year to include mental disabilities.

The Bazelon Center cites a recent study of Philadelphia nursing homes
that revealed residents were denied the right to vote because staff did
not think they were competent even though there is no voter-competency
requirement in Pennsylvania law.

In states that do limit voting based on competence, that determination
is left up to the courts - not poll workers or service providers.

"The thing we are nervous about is if we get all these people excited
and get them to polls are they going to be in any way intimidated,
turned away or challenged? That can be a pretty daunting experience,"
Decker said.

For years disability advocates focused their attention on the barriers
to voting for the physically disabled, such as making polling places
assessable.

Only recently, and with the help of federal funding, did advocates focus
on the mentally disabled. Candidates, Decker said, have ignored them for
years.

"Part of the problem is that we haven't proven that we are a voting
block to be reckoned with," Decker said. "People go after the Hispanic
vote, they go after the black vote, but people haven't figured out that
people with disabilities are very dependent on government programs and
have an interest in who's running the government."

Hoy now works for a peer group and helps with the recovery program at
Western State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in the Shenandoah Valley.
He said helping patients get registered to vote can go a long way in
their recovery.

"A very simple thing like voting means a lot to people who have given
up, who just feel like here's another thing taken from me," Hoy said.

Hoy said he is looking forward to voting again on Tuesday. He only hopes
the lines won't be too long. 


State Laws On Voting Among People w/ Psychiatric Disabilities


By The Associated Press    October 31, 2008


 

All but 11 states have some type of law limiting voting rights for
individuals based on competence.

-Eleven states place no disability-related restrictions on the right to
vote: Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New
Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

-Twenty states bar voting only if a court has determined that an
individual specifically lacks the capacity to vote: Alaska, Arkansas,
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa,
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

-Fifteen states and the District of Columbia bar voting by individuals
who are under guardianship or who have been adjudged mentally
incompetent or mentally incapacitated: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana,
Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, South Carolina, South
Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

-Nine states have laws that use outdated and stigmatizing terms such as
"idiots" and "insane persons" to describe who is barred from voting
based on competence concerns, but those laws are rarely enforced because
they are impossible to apply: Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, New
Mexico, Ohio, Minnesota, New Jersey and Nevada.

Source: The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

 

 

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