TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying the barriers and challenges to voting by residents in nursing homes and assisted living settings
AU - Karlawish, Jason
AU - Bonnie, Richard J.
AU - Appelbaum, Paul
AU - Kane, Rosalie A.
AU - Lyketsos, Constantine
AU - Karlan, Pamela S.
AU - James, Bryan M.
AU - Sabatino, Charles
AU - Lawrence, Thomas
AU - Knopman, David
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper was produced as part of “Developing Practical Guidelines for Voting by Persons with Dementia,” a project supported by a grant from the Greenwall Foundation and the Virginia Brown Fellowship for Aging and Stroke Research. For more information about the Dementia Voting Project, visit www.pennadc.org
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - To ascertain the need for and to inform development of guidelines for voting in long-term care settings, we conducted a telephone survey of Philadelphia nursing (n = 31) and assisted living (n = 20) settings following the 2003 election. Substantial variability existed in procedures used for registration and voting, in staff attitudes, and in the estimated proportion of residents who voted (29% ± 28, range 0-100%). Residents who wanted to vote were unable to do so at nearly one-third of sites, largely due to procedural problems. Nearly two-thirds of facilities indicated they assessed residents' voting capacity before the election. However, methods differed and may have disenfranchised residents who were actually competent to vote. Current procedures in many facilities fail to protect voting rights. These data suggest that rights might be better protected if election officials took charge of registration, filing absentee ballot requests, ballot completion, and trained LTC facility staff on voters' rights and reasonable accommodations.
AB - To ascertain the need for and to inform development of guidelines for voting in long-term care settings, we conducted a telephone survey of Philadelphia nursing (n = 31) and assisted living (n = 20) settings following the 2003 election. Substantial variability existed in procedures used for registration and voting, in staff attitudes, and in the estimated proportion of residents who voted (29% ± 28, range 0-100%). Residents who wanted to vote were unable to do so at nearly one-third of sites, largely due to procedural problems. Nearly two-thirds of facilities indicated they assessed residents' voting capacity before the election. However, methods differed and may have disenfranchised residents who were actually competent to vote. Current procedures in many facilities fail to protect voting rights. These data suggest that rights might be better protected if election officials took charge of registration, filing absentee ballot requests, ballot completion, and trained LTC facility staff on voters' rights and reasonable accommodations.
KW - Assisted living
KW - Long-term care
KW - Voting rights
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38549145367&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=38549145367&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1300/J031v20n01_04
DO - 10.1300/J031v20n01_04
M3 - Article
C2 - 18198160
AN - SCOPUS:38549145367
SN - 0895-9420
VL - 20
SP - 65
EP - 79
JO - Journal of Aging and Social Policy
JF - Journal of Aging and Social Policy
IS - 1
ER -