I heard a story on the radio this morning about elections and the elderly. No, it wasn't about embryonic stem-cell research or social security.
It was about how thousands of elderly people in nursing homes are either denied their right to vote, or have their vote abused.
First, the nursing home staff gets to choose who can be allowed to vote or not based on their own subjective opinion. In other words, elderly people have to prove they are mentally capable of voting, including passing verbal tests on knowledge about the candidates and the issues -- something that no other U.S. citizen has to do. Also, this opens up the residents to being denied if the staff member doesn't like them, or the way they would likely vote.
In addition, many of these elderly people suffer from losses in mental faculty due to Alzheimers, dementia, and other reasons that is abused by relatives or organizations that basically "help" the elderly person to vote when that person can't really make the decision for themselves. Hey, got a grandmother with Alzheimer's? Suddenly, you have two votes, not one.
Add this to the stories about registration fraud, discrimination, and just our campaign and incumbent systems overall and it is getting harder and harder to be proud of "democracy" in this federated republic of ours.
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