The American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging, with funding from the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging and the Greenwall Foundation, is conducting a project to identify, publicize, and catalyze policy and practice strategies nationwide that promote proper access to the polls by persons with cognitive impairments and protect against the fraudulent manipulation of the vote of this population.

The project, Accommodating Cognitive Impairments in Voting: Shaping Clinically and Ethically Sound Institutional and Public Policy, will accomplish these goals by:

• Surveying state election policies and activities addressing accommodations for persons with cognitive impairment in order to identify promising practices;
• Developing an easily accessible clearinghouse of information and resources on the subject;
• Identifying and describing the experiences in the November 2008 election of those election boards that provide direct outreach and support to residents of long-term care facilities and publishing a report of the findings;
• Supporting and evaluating a demonstration project of “mobile polling” in Vermont and publishing the evaluation in a peer-reviewed journal.

This website accomplishes the second goal of the project by developing an easily accessible clearinghouse of information and resources on the subject, including findings from the first, third and fourth goals of the project.

• Voting by Persons with Disabilities

• Jennifer Mathis, Voting Rights of Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments, Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, September – October 2008 (292-300)
• Charles P. Sabatino and Sally Hurme, Who Has the Capacity to Vote? Experience, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2009
• Charles P. Sabatino and Sally Hurme, Who Has the Capacity to Vote? Experience, Vol. 19, No. 1, 23-29 2009
• Paul S. Appelbaum, Richard J. Bonnie and Jason H. Karlawish, The Capacity to Vote of Persons With Alzheimer’s Disease, Am. J. Psychiatry 162:11, November 2005
• Jason Karlawish, Paul S. Appelbaum, Richard Bonnie, Pamela Karlan and Steve McConnell, Policy Statement on voting by persons with dementia residing in long-term care facilities, Alzheimer’s & Dementia 2 (2006) 243-245

• Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Voting Website
• Voting Rights of Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments, Jennifer Mathis
• People with Mental Disabilities Have the Right to Vote
• Providing Help to Voters with Disabilities: What You Should Know
• Vote. It’s your right.

• United States Senate, Special Committee on Aging, Older Voters: Opportunities and Challenges in the 2008 Elections, January 31, 2008
• S. Hrg. Rep. No. 110-483 (2008)

• United States Election Assistance Commission Website
• Quick Start Management Guide on Elderly and Disabled Voters in Long Term Care Facilities

• GAO, Topic Collection: U.S. Elections Website
• Government Accountability Office (GAO) Study: Voting Access for Voters with Disabilities and the Elderly—Election 2008
• Elections: States, Territories, and the District Are Taking a Range of Important Steps to Manage Their Varied Voting System Environments

• N.A., Module 5: Residential Facilities for Groups Homes for Individual Resident Care A Look at Alzheimer’s, N.D.
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• N.A., Module 5: Communication, N.D.

• Anya Huneke, Vermont launches mobile polling program, NECN, Oct. 23, 2008
• Dena Potter, Advocates Push For Voting Rights For People w/ Psychiatric Disabilities, Associated Press, Nov. 3, 2008
• Ina Urbina, V.A. to Allow Voter Signup for Veterans at Facilities, New York Times, Sept. 9, 2008
• Mary Pitman Kitch, Democracy Makes House Calls, The Oregonian, Nov. 2, 2008
• Steven Rosenfeld, Department of Veterans Affairs Changes Policy on Helping Wounded Soldiers Register to Vote, AlterNet, May 1, 2008
• Susan Q. Stranahan, Mobile Polling—For Those Who Simply Can’t Get to a Voting Booth, AARP Bulletin Today, July 14, 2008
• Taunya English, Mental Disability And Voting Access, Nov. 4, 2008

• Voting by Residents of Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities: State Law Accommodations

• Introduction, Charles P. Sabatino and Edward D. Spurgeon
• Recommendations of the Symposium
• Voting and Cognitive Impairments: An Election Administrator's Perspective, Deborah Markowitz, Vermont Secretary of State
• Voting by Elderly Persons with Cognitive Impairment: Lessons from Other Democratic Nations, Jason H. Karlawish and Richard J. Bonnie
• Framing the Voting Rights Claims of Cognitively Impaired Individuals, Pamela S. Karlan
• Defining and Assessing Capacity to Vote: The Effect of Mental Impairment on the Rights of Voters, Sally Balch Hurme and Paul S. Appelbaum
• Absentee Voting by People with Disabilities: Promoting Access and Integrity, Daniel P. Tokaji and Ruth Colker
• Preserving Voting Rights in Long-Term Care Institutions: Facilitating Resident Voting While Maintaining Election Integrity, Nina A. Kohn
• The Technology of Access: Allowing People of Age to Vote for Themselves, Ted Selker

• Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Voting Website
• Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, Voting Rights & Elections Website
• GAO, Topic Collection: U.S. Elections Website
• National Association of State Election Directors Website
• United States Election Assistance Commission Website
• University of Pennsylvania Alzheimer’s Disease Center and Penn Memory Center, Facilitating Voting as People Age: Implications of Cognitive Impairment Website