Should Sufferers of Dementia Have the Right to Vote?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18916-2004Sep13.html?nav=most_emailed
from JoeUser Forums
From the Washington Post:
Many people with advanced dementia appear to be voting in elections -- including through absentee ballot. Although there are no national statistics, two studies in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island found that patients at dementia clinics turned out in higher numbers than the general population.
Well, at least someone's turning out.
politics
3,603 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well the Democrats need some way to have a chance.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

@ Draginol....


Seriously, (as I said in my things that piss me off article) if you can't remember your own name, find the bathroom in your own home, recognize your children on a day-to-day basis....should you really have the right to vote? Do these people even know who they're voting for?  Are they aware that it's Dubya and not his dad, or that Eisenhower is long gone?

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
Or that it is the man married to the owner of Heinz Ketchup not Hunt's.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
That's why we need electronic voting. It would fix everything, as it would have pictures and text and movies so that people would have to have dementia not to know who they're voting for.
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top
But if they have dementia in the first place than the movies and pictures would be useless, but yeah Pictures should at least be next to the candidate's name
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Seriously though, I would be interested in knowing who they tend to vote for because I have a good guess..

We know that the dead historically have voted Democratic.
Reply #7 from PolMach Forums Top
Well my dog is a staunch conservative republican (what can I say she is a Bitch, and I mean literally), but being 16 years old she still does not have the right to vote, so two more years for her.

My Cat is a diehard Libertarian (she seeks to liberate her ass from my boot), and she can't vote for another 8 years.

I think the government should lower ages for Cats and Dogs, so not just the elderly dogs and cats get a vote.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I would have to say I think we have a pretty good line in the sand on who gets to vote (anybody but convicted felons). If we start limiting people based on their mental conditions, soon there will be a whole cottage industry devoted to trying to decide which mental conditions are severe enough to get you disenfranchised, and another cottage industry of people trying to get other people declared non compos mentis in order to sway the political balance or arguing that multiple personalities should get multiple votes, or studying schizophrenia to see if it affects mostly democrats so they can lobby for or against its inclusion on the disenfranchisement list, or other equally obnoxious or stupid things.