A woman wants to change a state law to require that mentally disabled voters be supervised when they cast a ballot.
Brenda Lyddon said she was upset when staff at a group home took her 26-year-old son, who is developmentally disabled, to vote on Election Day against her wishes.
Lyddon said she told the person in charge of the group home that her son was not to vote. "I am his mother and he was not allowed to vote." "He does not have the mental capacity to choose for himself."
Lyddon, who has guardianship over most of her son's legal decision, unsuccessfully challenged his ballot.
It was at least the second case in which a relative challenged a family member's ballot in this month's presidential election in Iowa.
In Council Bluffs, a woman challenged her elderly mother's absentee ballot, claiming her mother suffered from dementia and was coerced into casting the ballot by Democratic campaign workers who were going door-to-door asking potential voters if they wanted an absentee ballot. That challenge was also unsuccessful.
Linda Langenberg, deputy Iowa secretary of state, said it's the first time in her 32 years supervising elections that she's heard of someone challenging a family member's ballot.
Langenberg: "The Iowa code says the only way you can deny them their right to vote is to have them judged incompetent by a court of law."
Full Article and Source:
Woman seeks limits on mentally disabled voters
Mother wants to limit voting for disabled
Mother To Challenge Son's Absentee Vote
See also:
Voting Rights
Shedding the Guardian
Brenda Lyddon said she was upset when staff at a group home took her 26-year-old son, who is developmentally disabled, to vote on Election Day against her wishes.
Lyddon said she told the person in charge of the group home that her son was not to vote. "I am his mother and he was not allowed to vote." "He does not have the mental capacity to choose for himself."
Lyddon, who has guardianship over most of her son's legal decision, unsuccessfully challenged his ballot.
It was at least the second case in which a relative challenged a family member's ballot in this month's presidential election in Iowa.
In Council Bluffs, a woman challenged her elderly mother's absentee ballot, claiming her mother suffered from dementia and was coerced into casting the ballot by Democratic campaign workers who were going door-to-door asking potential voters if they wanted an absentee ballot. That challenge was also unsuccessful.
Linda Langenberg, deputy Iowa secretary of state, said it's the first time in her 32 years supervising elections that she's heard of someone challenging a family member's ballot.
Langenberg: "The Iowa code says the only way you can deny them their right to vote is to have them judged incompetent by a court of law."
Full Article and Source:
Woman seeks limits on mentally disabled voters
Mother wants to limit voting for disabled
Mother To Challenge Son's Absentee Vote
See also:
Voting Rights
Shedding the Guardian
2 comments:
Another way of taking advantage of the vulnerable --- take them to vote and brainwash them along the way so when they get there, they'll vote the way they're "supposed" to!
I was an election judge for more than 15 years and I watched how the disadvantaged were "helped", assisted with their votes by their "bosses", their caretakes.
Post a Comment