1y ago

More than a million adults have legal guardians. In seven states, they can't vote.

www.motherjones.com

18 comments

If you have someone making life choices for you does it not make sense that you shouldn't be allowed to vote? Someone has successfully made an argument you aren't fit to run your own life. Not sure why they should be allowed to affect the lives of others. I'm not sure what the difference is, at least in some cases, between people with a guardian and children <18 y/o. And IDK of many clamoring to lower the voting age.
If you want to argue that guardian and/or conservatorships are misused far too often then I'm with you on that.
- Guardianships are very often for severe physical disabilities with no intellectual imparement. Those people can't vote either.
- Funny how Americans treat owing a gun an inalienable right, but voting is a privilege that could be taken off more easily than 'The Second'
  
  I'm game for not letting people capable of basic life choices to either, to be honest.
  
  You can't own guns if you're conserved or have been involuntarily committed.
  Please keep gunownership out of this discussion unless you actually tried to purchase one alongsode the 4.2 million new gun owners since 2020. I dont care which side you're on, but hoplophobia went out of style in my lefty circles since covid.
- Daily reminder that the average 15 year old is smarter than the average 70 year old by literally any psychometric standard.
  
  Smarter maybe, but wiser?
  
  Lead poisoning is a real bitch
  
  15 year olds have much less knowledge.
- This implies the people handing out these conservatorship judgements are infallible, which they aren't.
- If they submit a properly completed voting document, their vote should count. (It should also be easy to vote.)
- Judges, at least in my area, are increasingly explicitly listing which rights are being taken and which rights remain with the individual. For example, financial concerns or driving may be directed to the guardian but the individual still has the right to get married. I would hope that voting would be one of those line items.
- If you have someone making life choices for you does it not make sense that you shouldn’t be allowed to vote?
  As with the disenfranchisement of felons and inmates, there is a perverse incentive to put people you don't want to vote into conservatorship.
So this is an interesting one for me. I worked with mentally handicapped adults for years, and here in texas at least, if they were able, they could vote.
What happened often was that they voted for who their caretakers insinuated they should vote for, and were taken advantage of in that regard. It wasnt what they wanted, they just did what they were told.
But, to counter that point, the same thing happens to perfectly compitent adults through societal pressures, cultural influence, and media coverage. It may not be what they really want to vote for, but these influnces direct their vote.
Its been established that poll restrictions based on literacy are unconstitutional since 1965. But there is some nuance. Where is the line drawn for disadvantaged or mentally handicapped adults? Convincing chuck, 35 and on a 4th grade reading level, to agree with me and vote how i want is one thing. physically guiding the hand of and checking a box for sharon, a 40 year old with the mind of an infant, seems to be two different parts of a spectrum that blur the line between acceptable and immoral. Its fairly easy to distinguish those extremes, but there is in fact a line somewhere in between.

18 comments