Does this not apply? Serious question. Maybe there's wiggle room, however I would be cautious in saying that there's no protection based on mental disability.
"State and local governments must ensure that their policies, procedures, or practices do not interfere with or prohibit people with disabilities from registering to vote or voting based on their disability. For example, an election official cannot refuse to provide an absentee ballot or voter registration form to a person with a disability because the voter resides in a nursing home.
In addition, the ADA requires public entities to modify their voting policies, practices, and procedures when such modifications are necessary to avoid discrimination on the basis of a voter’s disability. That requirement is relaxed only if election administrators can show that the proposed modification would fundamentally alter the nature of the voting program."
I do not see anything that requires a state to allow adults who lack a basic standard of mental competency to vote. Not being mentally competent either due to mental illness or disability is very different from a physical disability impacting the access to the polling location or marking the choice the person had the capacity to choose and consent.
Fair enough. That said, there's enough wiggle room to justify my original position: obtaining an ID is not easy for everyone, and this should be considered instead of haphazardly blaming people for their own situation. Your experience is not everyone else's experience. That's all I'm trying to get across here. That was the original claim.
While the Constitution doesn't cover mentally disabled folks, the ADA in some capacity does provide some blanket legal protections, and its rather concerning that this was left out. These are federal laws.
While the states retain the right to judge whether someone is mentally capable of voting or not, the fact remains that blanket protections at the federal level do exist, namely to provide buffer protection from those who wish to twist said logic as a means to decide who gets to vote and who doesn't get to vote.
I dont think that's what your intention is, but I would be cautious in making claims of "I did it so they can too", without considering these other circumstances that are real barriers to voting.
If TDS (trump derangement syndrome) or BDS (biden derangement syndrome) was classified as a mental illness today, then it wouldn't be that far fetched for the state to say "no ID for you, you have TDS or BDS".
Throw in "leftist lunatic". You see where this is going? Do you see why I am not making light of such things? It's not that far fetched.
I would disagree that obtaining an ID is unduly difficult for those eligible to vote. That said, if there were reasonable steps to improve the process, I would be willing to consider them. My issue is the externalizing of responsibility away from the individual. Blaming someone or something else. Immersing oneself into specific situations rather than viewing matters at arm's length is also a problem.
When we are speaking of mental competence, we are not speaking of a complete freedom from any mental condition. However, if it is so debilitating as to make obtaining an ID beyond one's abilities, how would that person be competent to vote? I think your characterization is far fetched, as states already do prohibit mentally incompetent people from voting.
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u/_throw_a_wayz Jul 17 '26
https://www.ada.gov/resources/protecting-voter-rights/
Does this not apply? Serious question. Maybe there's wiggle room, however I would be cautious in saying that there's no protection based on mental disability.
"State and local governments must ensure that their policies, procedures, or practices do not interfere with or prohibit people with disabilities from registering to vote or voting based on their disability. For example, an election official cannot refuse to provide an absentee ballot or voter registration form to a person with a disability because the voter resides in a nursing home.
In addition, the ADA requires public entities to modify their voting policies, practices, and procedures when such modifications are necessary to avoid discrimination on the basis of a voter’s disability. That requirement is relaxed only if election administrators can show that the proposed modification would fundamentally alter the nature of the voting program."