Demented American Voters - No, Really

American voters are increasingly demented - literally. More and more Americans are suffering from one form of dementia or another and there is nothing that stops them from voting in elections. Indeed, they sometimes turn out in higher numbers (percentage-wise) than the rest of the population.

The Washington Post explains:

Concern is growing that people with dementia may be targets for partisan exploitation in nursing homes and other facilities. Even without abuse, family members and caregivers may unduly influence close elections. "Precisely because Alzheimer's disease insidiously erodes the ability to make reasoned judgments . . . it is somewhat unnerving to consider that patients with dementia may routinely contribute to selecting the leader of the free world," Victor W. Henderson and David A. Drachman wrote after the 2000 election in the journal Neurology.

Many people with mild dementia are able to understand the issues in an election, but experts say there is no way to test voter competence. While many states have laws governing who is eligible to vote, attempts to disenfranchise voters with dementia could face constitutional challenge. Unlike driving, which is a privilege, voting is a right. "I think it's a very important issue, and I think it is striking how little law there is on the subject," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a political scientist and constitutional scholar at Duke University. Although the state could deny voting rights to people incapable of understanding what was at stake, he said, "the legal challenges are going to be on how that's defined."

"I have had caregivers accompany dementia patients into the booth and vote for them," said Jean Merget, a social worker at the North Broward Memory Disorder Center in Pompano Beach, Fla., who said she repeatedly heard of the practice during support group meetings. "This is not uncommon, especially in Florida."

There's not really much that can be done about this. Intelligence and competency tests aren't permitted because it is simply too easy for them to be abused. Women were once excluded from voting on the theory that they were incompetent and the disenfranchisement of an entire subset of the population is a disturbing prospect. Still, it is just as disturbing to think of a close election being decided by people who can't even be trusted to go outside alone — or their caregivers.

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