The coronavirus pandemic has forced nursing homes to place a number of restrictions on their residents. These constraints are having the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for nursing home residents to vote. Hundreds of thousands of nursing home and assisted living community residents could be disenfranchised.
Older Americans are some of the most reliable voters, but nursing home residents face challenges to votingeven in normal times, and they are encountering even greater barriers this election season. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, nursing homes have locked down, prohibiting family and friends from visiting residents and residents from leaving the facilities. This means residents may not be able to leave to vote and also will not be able to have help from family members or organizations in obtaining and filling out mail-in ballots.
In past years, nursing homes and assisted living facilities often acted as polling places, but many of those are being moved due to the pandemic. In addition, nonpartisan organizations have historically been able to enter nursing homes to assist residents with their ballots, but it is unclear whether this will be allowed this year. North Carolina and Louisiana specifically prohibit nursing home staff from assisting residents with their ballots, but even in states that don’t explicitly prohibit it, overworked staff may not have the time to help residents.
While federal law requires nursing homes to protect their residents’ rights, including the right to vote, it is “a really open question to what extent people in long-term care institutions are going to be able to participate in our election in November,” says Nina Kohn, a law professor at Syracuse University who has studied facility residents’ voting-rights issues. Kohn warns that “we should be clear that there is tremendous reason to be concerned that nursing home residents will be . . . systematically disenfranchised in this election,”
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Should you have a question related to a nursing home or assisted living-related matter for one of your family members, don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our experienced elder law attorneys at Elville and Associates. President and Principal Attorney Stephen Elville or Partner and Senior Elder Law Attorney Lindsay Moss would be more than happy to be a resource to your family. Steve and Lindsay may be reached at steve@elvilleassociates.com and lindsay@elvilleassociates.com, respectively. To learn more about Steve, please click here, and to learn more about Lindsay, please click here.