title: Identifying the barriers and challenges to voting by residents in nursing homes and assisted living settings.
abstract: To ascertain the need for and to inform development of guidelines for voting in long-term care settings, we conducted a telephone survey of Philadelphia nursing (n = 31) and assisted living (n = 20) settings following the 2003 election. Substantial variability existed in procedures used for registration and voting, in staff attitudes, and in the estimated proportion of residents who voted (29%+/-28, range 0-100%). Residents who wanted to vote were unable to do so at nearly one-third of sites, largely due to procedural problems. Nearly two-thirds of facilities indicated they assessed residents' voting capacity before the election. However, methods differed and may have disenfranchised residents who were actually competent to vote. Current procedures in many facilities fail to protect voting rights. These data suggest that rights might be better protected if election officials took charge of registration, filing absentee ballot requests, ballot completion, and trained LTC facility staff on voters' rights and reasonable accommodations.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Institute of Aging, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. jason.karlawish@uphs.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Jason H T
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Karlawish
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bonnie
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Appelbaum
authors.forename: Rosalie A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.forename: Constantine G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Lyketsos
authors.forename: Pamela S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Karlan
authors.forename: Bryan D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sabatino
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Knopman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D040561:Assisted Living Facilities; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011057:Politics