Voting Laws Discriminate Against Mentally Disabled Early American politicians felt that excluding "the idiot and insane" would ensure that the voting public consisted only of those capable of making informed and intelligent political decisions. But as medical and social concepts of mental disability continued to evolve, these exclusionary laws were neither altered nor erased. In fact, states persisted in drafting and amending their constitutions to include such laws until as late as 1959. "The wording and the reasoning of these laws are holdovers from 18th and 19th century attitudes about the mentally disabled," Schriner said. "But the fact that Missouri adopted their disenfranchisement law in 1945 and that Alaska joined the union with one in 1959 means this is not just an 18th century phenomenon." http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/legalissues/a/vote1000.htm
Bizarrely, the same search threw up a link to a far-right organisation here in Ireland, Ulster Nation (associated with the Third Way/Harrington ex-NF), that stated: "Officials in Northern Ireland apparently refused to let a woman with Down's syndrome register to vote because of a rule barring "idiots and lunatics. According to a fact sheet produced by the Electoral Commission anyone with mental disabilities cannot vote at a general election, under common law, if they are incapable of making a reasoned judgment on polling day. The guidelines then further clarifies this with the words “idiots” and “lunatics".
Jason.
On 2007-05-11 06:57:13 +0100 joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> My daughter asked me whether you're allowed to vote if you have Down's
> syndrome.
>
> Anybody know?
>
> Joanna