During the 2016 election, Dr. Jane Caldwell was living in Iowa, just a few doors down from her mother, who lived in a long-term care facility. Dr. Caldwell’s mother suffered from severe dementia.

“She didn’t know my name, she didn’t know I was her daughter, she didn’t remember her husband had died a few months before and she couldn’t tell you anything about his day,” Caldwell said. .

Shortly before the election, the facilities manager at this home informed Dr. Caldwell that poll workers would be coming to register voters to vote. Caldwell had power of attorney for his mother.

“I asked that she not be registered to vote, because I didn’t think she could make a good decision,” she said. “And what’s more, I didn’t want to help her vote, because I felt like I would push her to vote for the person I wanted.

“Two weeks later, I went to visit my mother, and she had an ‘I Voted’ sticker on her dress. I asked her if she had voted and she said ‘I don’t know’ – because that my mother had dementia she didn’t remember so I went to the facilities manager and they said, “oh, yes, they came today and they helped everyone. vote.” And I said, “well, I asked you not to let my mother register or vote. They said, “Well, you can’t do that.” later I started getting mail from the Republican Party so I assumed my mother had voted Republican, which I don’t think she ever would have done.”

Dr. Caldwell’s story raises a question that isn’t often asked: Can cognitive impairment prevent you from voting? And if not, how does the vote take place?

The laws

Cognitive impairment does not mean someone cannot vote. THE American Bar Association compares the ability to vote to the ability to ride a bike: the only way to accurately determine it is to let a person do it. If someone can communicate a choice on the ballot, they can vote, even if someone else has a proxy.

The exception, at least in Missouri and a handful of other statesis guardianship. Specific cases vary and there are ways to restore voting rights to a neighborhoodbut in general, anyone placed under guardianship does not have the right to vote.

The process

To learn more about how voting works in long-term care facilities, at least in the state of Missouri, KSMU spoke with Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller.

The process begins with requests for absentee ballots, which under state law can actually be filed by a relative of the voter on his or her behalf.

“According to the statute, if we receive 10 or more applications, we are supposed to send a bipartisan team,” Schoeller explained.

The “bipartisan” clause is quite serious, in this case: the election judges must be a registered Republican and a registered Democrat. In the event that the voter requires assistance in filling out their ballot, they must both be present at all times.

“And I’ll give you an example,” Schoeller said, “someone may end up reading the numbers for the voter and another may fill in the ovals. So it doesn’t matter, you have two people with the voter and the ballot to make sure it’s fair.

Although election judges can read the ballot to the voter, they cannot, for example, explain a ballot measure or a candidate’s positions. If the voter says he wants to vote for someone, the judges must note that name… even if it’s not on the ballotor even if the person they nominate does not run in that election. These rules are the same if election judges help someone vote at an in-person voting location on Election Day.

Yet voters with cognitive disabilities can choose anyone to help them vote – except some obvious exceptions like political candidates. In the case of a long-term care facility with fewer than 10 absentee ballot candidates, they may not even have the opportunity to be assisted by poll workers. By nature, one assistant will be less accountable than a bipartisan team of two. And remember, this is all happening in Missouri only – each state has its own procedures. But like the American population continues to ageStories like Dr. Caldwell’s will become even more relevant.