Voting in elections

Beate

Registered User
May 21, 2014
12,179
0
London
So there is a general election coming up. We're both registered on the electoral roll for postal vote though as a pesky foreigner I am excluded from general elections. OH isn't but then he has dementia. His mental capacity for voting has gone so what's the protocol - do I have to tell anyone or shall we just ignore his voting papers?
 

Katrine

Registered User
Jan 20, 2011
2,837
0
England
I found it nigh on impossible to get my mum off the electoral roll, which was her wish. In the end I gave up and now send in her annual voter registration form. If I ignore it they just send increasing impatient chasing letters. This is in Scotland. It may be different elsewhere. I have been told by the Electoral Registration Officer here that from a voting POV every adult citizen is deemed to be eligible to vote, regardless of their mental condition.

I would recommend that you dispose of unwanted electoral material and polling cards and let postal voting registration lapse. The only thing the authorities care about is if someone else fraudulently used another person's vote, e.g. by completing a postal ballot form on their behalf.
 

JenniferW

Registered User
Jul 17, 2011
44
0
Shropshire
I was also wondering about this. My mother's now in a care home and her mental condition is such that she might still know what an election is, but she's no longer able to make an appropriate sort of response.

It worries me that she must be one of many who no longer have the mental capacity to vote but who remain on the electoral register. It strikes me as an area where things are being fudged.

In other contexts (regarding her health and care), we've had to argue that she no longer has mental capacity, but on this, it doesn't seem to be deemed relevant! Back in the days when my mother was still living in her own home, we got counci tax exemption - on the basis of her mental health! It seems to be one set of rules for one thing, another set of rules for others.
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,084
0
Bury
Being on the electoral roll can be useful as part of proof of identity if for instance you, as attorney, wanted to change a bank or open a new account anywhere.
 

Spamar

Registered User
Oct 5, 2013
7,723
0
Suffolk
In countries where voting is compulsory, such as Australia (?) how do they cope with people with dementia and similar illnesses? Just curious.
 

tre

Registered User
Sep 23, 2008
1,352
0
Herts
I always felt this is a bit strange. We get a discount on our council tax because of my husband's dementia so I feel it would not be that difficult to have a category of unable to vote because of lack of capacity to tie in with this.
If the person is registered as a postal voter would not this be open to abuse for someone else to send in their vote?
Having said that it makes very little difference here as there is always a huge Tory majority. I have voted in every election since I was 18 but the person I voted for has never been elected.
I think even in his current advanced stage of dementia my husband would object if I suggested he might vote conservative. I will not try as I do not want to make him agitated.
Tre
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,084
0
Bury
"If the person is registered as a postal voter would not this be open to abuse for someone else to send in their vote?"

The signature is verified.

Voting at a station also has problems, if Fred across the road proudly proclaims that he never votes I can just turn up and vote in his place having had a postal vote myself so I don't turn up twice.
 

Raggedrobin

Registered User
Jan 20, 2014
1,425
0
My Mum has a postal vote and I filled in the forms and said she was incapable of signing her name, so they asked me to sign with power of attorney. There didn't seem to be anything that asked about mental capacity in terms of mental ability to make a voting decision So When she gets her postal voting forms in theory I don't see what would stop me from using her vote?
 

JenniferW

Registered User
Jul 17, 2011
44
0
Shropshire
I think this annoys me because I see it as yet another fudging of the realities of dementia. On the one hand, the council accepted she could have council tax exemption on the grounds of her mental health, and on the other hand, they (and central government) think she can vote. It's so like the classification of what's nursing care and needs, and what's 'personal care', which for someone with dementia is just ridiculous. I see hypocrisy all around me. I always did, but I notice so much more as we deal with all these dementia-related issues.
 

Pete R

Registered User
Jul 26, 2014
2,036
0
Staffs
So there is a general election coming up. We're both registered on the electoral roll for postal vote though as a pesky foreigner I am excluded from general elections. OH isn't but then he has dementia. His mental capacity for voting has gone so what's the protocol - do I have to tell anyone or shall we just ignore his voting papers?

This from the Alzheimer's web site........

Question: Can a person with dementia vote in the UK general and local elections.


Answer: Yes, a person with dementia can vote regardless of their capacity.

It is clearly stated in the Electoral Commission's guidance for Electoral Registration Officers that mental health conditions do not constitute a legal incapacity to vote, so a person would not be stopped from voting at the polling station.

However, it is important to note that the guidelines also state that the decision as to whether and how to vote at an election must be made by the elector themselves, and not by a carer or a person making decisions on behalf of the elector.
 

NanLorac

Registered User
May 14, 2012
686
0
Scotland
We get postal votes and my husband signed the original paperwork for his postal vote.

He was a beautiful writer and now he cannot even spell his name but I will give him the form and get him to vote and post it off.

If it does not count because he can hardly write his name then that's ok. So long as he is happy that he voted then that's all that matter's for me. :)