Mentally Ill Man Challenges Missouri Over Right to Vote

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBJ5AJ430E.html

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A former law professor with schizoaffective disorder filed a federal lawsuit Friday challenging a Missouri law that denies voting rights to some people who are mentally ill. snip

Under the Missouri Constitution and state law, those who have a guardian because of "mental incapacity" or are found by a court to be "incapacitated" cannot vote and can face criminal charges if they do.

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the American Civil Liberties Union are helping represent Prye in the case. The Bazelon Center said the suit could have national implications. It said 26 states have a similar prohibition, and if the Missouri suit is successful, other states' policies might be challenged.

"These laws are blunt instruments that deny people their fundamental right to vote, regardless of their ability to understand elections and participate at the polls," said Jennifer Mathis, an attorney with the Washington D.C.-based center.

more

[Tummler]

1. I thought this thread was going to be about John Ashcroft

I was thinking, "when did Ashcroft lose his voting rights?"

[Eye and Monkey]

2. I thought it was about Bush, you know, St Louie and all.

[Technowitch]

3. Plus he can so vote for a ham sandwich... er, Bush if he wants to!

[Goldom]

4. I thought it was going to say

he wanted separate votes for multiple personalities.

I'm sorry! I'm a horrible, horrible person, I know. I really thought it would though.

[pop goes the weasel]

5. it's the guardianship issue

I've known schizoaffective people, and the main thing you notice about them is that they have difficulty interacting normally. The ones I have known have not been delusional, even when unmedicated. Professor Pyre likely experienced an episode of uncontrolled delusional thinking late last year, leading to the guardianship. The legal system should recognize that mental illness is not static, that like many other chronic illnesses, it is episodic, and that months, even years, of relatively good health and remission can come in between periods of acute symptoms. This all-or-nothing approach to mental illness, this tendency to strip adult rights, and even human status, from people with mental illness, works to keep people who need help from seeking it. People become terrified that they will be "taken away," never allowed to lead a normal life again, because of laws like this one in Missouri. Shame on the lawmakers if they don't change it.

[Kimber Scott]

6. I agree and how many "sane" people just check any box because they haven't

researched and/or don't understand the issues? Mentally ill, or not, episodic, or chronic, everyone should be allowed to vote. Even convicted felons. They have to pay taxes, right? Ok. NEW RULE: If you are denied the right to vote, you are not required to pay taxes.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. It could also discourage mentally ill people

from seeking treatment.

[jwirr]

9. This also affects people

diagnosed with other disabilities. Anyone under guardianship in many states lose their voting rights. Yet I know persons who have cerebral palsy or epilepsy who use computers, drive cars, hold jobs in sheltered work shops and yet are denied the right to vote because some welfare programs require a guardian before you can receive benefits.

For the last 45 years I have walked into the precinct and reminded the workers that I am there to vote for two. My single vote has had to represent both my daughter and me. She would never be able to vote as she cannot talk, walk, feed herself, dress herself, etc. but it is ironic that the person in our family that needs representation the most is denied it. It did not matter back when the people of this country were truly compassionate but now with our neo-compassionate conservatives it is vital that the ones who are capable to vote be allowed to do so.

[CO Liberal]

7. The NJ Law Use To Say.....

...that in order to be qualified to vote you had to be 21, a resident for at least X number of days before the election, and "not an idiot".

And today, we have an idiot in the White House. :-)

[tibbir]

8. I don't have a guardian but I do have a mental illness

seriouos enough that I can no longer work. I can guarantee that if the professor is undergoing a psychotic break or other serious episode, the last thing he's going to be thinking about is going out and casting his ballot.

[enki23]

10. all adults capable of any communication whatsoever should have the vote

period. no matter what their mental state is, no matter what crimes they have committed. we really, really need to a "right to vote" amendment to the constitution.