Kansans blocked lawmakers from denying voting rights to mentally ill

[HereSince1628]

Kansas voters have approved an amendment to their state constitution removing a provision that authorized the state legislature to deny the right to vote to anyone living with a mental illness. (BTW--It seems that the provision that was removed didn't even define 'mental illness.')

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Stigma_Alerts_Archive&template=/contentmanagement/contentdisplay.cfm&ContentID=110847&title=StigmaBusters%20-%20Nov.%202010


Do you know if your state denies the mentally ill the right to vote? Check out this list, you might be surprised:

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Elections1&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=104206

[hobbit709]

1. If that was enforced, it would block the 26%ers.

[LARED]

2. I'm pretty much OK if the mentally incompetent

are denied the right to vote. Not all mentally ill people are mentally incompetent.

[HereSince1628]

3. Based on the number of states with such laws I have no doubt

that yours would be a common position.

What about 'partial' incompetence? Wisconsin would deny the franchise to partially incompetent persons.

[HereSince1628]

5. Should Mental Health in-patients be guaranteed access to voting

if their mental illness doesn't threaten their mental competence?

In-patients are frequently locked in and can't get to the polls or to absentee ballots?

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. We have advanced voting in Kansas

So access wouldn't be a problem here.

[HereSince1628]

11. I'm not sure, people can be mental health in-patients for months.

I don't know how advanced voting works in Kansas. But it seems that a mental health in-patient might not have expected hospitalization and therefore might not have arranged to vote.

Although stays of several weeks are more common than long stays, longer stays are particularly true in the VA when the in-patient vet has no job or home to which she/he can return. My limited experience is that the VA is reluctant to turn a recovering mental health in-patient into a homeless vet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. You can either request a ballot by mail or vote in person for 3 weeks before the election

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Wow I am not. I live in Kansas and was glad to see this pass.

It was actually one of only two races on my ballot that won. (The other was my state rep, a good Dem who won re-election.)

Who decides if you are mentally competent enough to vote? What is the criteria? Is senility a reason to lose your right to vote? What about depression? 80% of the American public will be treated for some form of mental illness in their lifetime. How is disenfranchising them a good thing?

[HereSince1628]

10. True, dementia, Alzheimer's and strokes are the leading causes

of decisions of mental incompetence in older adults.

[AnArmyVeteran]

4. Not one right winger would be allowed to vote.

They are all mentally incompetent or defective.

[HereSince1628]

6. And they would say the same of us...

and both statements would be wrong because they are false equivalences with mental illness.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. As much as I despise right wingers

I disagree with you on this.

[siligut]

12. Soviet Psychiatry anyone?

Should a certain wing of the government see fit to try to use this law, those who mutter "How convenient", would immediately be diagnosed with schizoid paranoia, voila! Catch 22.

[aka-chmeee]

14. I voted to approve this measure.....

Even though I could imagine (wishful thinking, I know) that it could have been used to prevent most republicans from voting, a major improvement here in KS.