Understand Your Voting Rights Before You Vote!

Are you ready to head to the polls to cast your vote? Jump in the "deep end" of our conversation with Darleen, our host and Laura Williams with the Center for Vulnerable Voters.org  as we tackle the often-overlooked challenges that can hinder voting for Vulnerable Voters, ranging from those in residential living situations to aging individuals at home. As we dissect the intricacies of maintaining voter registration and the effects of ranked choice voting, you'll gain a wealth of knowledge and practical tools to help ensure every senior's voice is respected and counted.

Witness our deep dive into the myriad of voting methods and the various safeguards that preserve the integrity of our electoral system, particularly for the elderly. We discuss the nuances of in-person voting, the benefits of curbside voting options, and the security of ballot drop boxes. Learn how seniors can protect their votes, especially in memory care situations, and discern between political noise and official election information. This episode isn't just theoretical; it's a hands-on guide to bolstering voter education and enhancing the processes that support a robust and equitable democratic process.

Finally, we address the delicate topic of voting rights for those with dementia, providing a compassionate yet vigilant approach to ensuring their participation in elections. Our conversation shines a light on the responsibilities of residential communities, the importance of staff education, and the management oversight necessary to support memory care residents in the voting process. I'll share invaluable resources to aid listeners in safeguarding their loved ones' rights without exploitation. Tune in for an episode brimming with heartfelt advice, empowering knowledge, and an unwavering dedication to the sanctity of the voting rights of our senior citizens.

SeniorLivingGuide.com Podcast sponsored by TransMed Care Long Distance Medical Transportation

The background music is written, performed and produced exclusively by purple-planet.com.
https://www.purple-planet.com/

*SeniorLivingGuide.com Webinars and Podcast represents the opinions and expertise of our guests. The content here is for informational and educational purposes. It does not necessarily represent the views, recommendations, opinions or advice of Fairfax Publishing/SeniorLivingGuide.com or its employees

Transcript

Unlock the secrets to empowering our senior community's democratic participation with Laura Williams, a seasoned expert with 25 years dedicated to serving seniors. In our candid conversation, we tackle the often-overlooked challenges that can hinder voting for Vulnerable Voters, ranging from those in residential living situations to aging individuals at home. As we dissect the intricacies of maintaining voter registration and the effects of ranked choice voting, you'll gain a wealth of knowledge and practical tools to help ensure every senior's voice is respected and counted.
 
 Witness our deep dive into the myriad of voting methods and the various safeguards that preserve the integrity of our electoral system, particularly for the elderly. We discuss the nuances of in-person voting, the benefits of curbside voting options, and the security of ballot drop boxes. Learn how seniors can protect their votes, especially in memory care situations, and discern between political noise and official election information. This episode isn't just theoretical; it's a hands-on guide to bolstering voter education and enhancing the processes that support a robust and equitable democratic process.
 
 Finally, we address the delicate topic of voting rights for those with dementia, providing a compassionate yet vigilant approach to ensuring their participation in elections. Our conversation shines a light on the responsibilities of residential communities, the importance of staff education, and the management oversight necessary to support memory care residents in the voting process. I'll share invaluable resources to aid listeners in safeguarding their loved ones' rights without exploitation. Tune in for an episode brimming with heartfelt advice, empowering knowledge, and an unwavering dedication to the sanctity of the voting rights of our senior citizens.

0:01 

SeniorLivingGuidecom Podcast 

5:09 

Senior Citizen Rights and Voting Safeguards 

18:23 

Voter Registration and Ranked Choice Voting 

23:18 

Understanding Voting Methods and Safeguards 

29:47 

Safeguarding Senior Voting and Memory Care 

37:54 

Protecting Voting Rights for Those With Dementia 

Speaker 1: 0:01 

SeniorLivingGuidecom podcast discusses topics which are relevant to the everyday lives of seniors and their caregivers. We are joined by experts who share their knowledge on a variety of issues. Seniorlivingguidecom podcast offer solutions and resources to create the best quality of life as we age. And now let's welcome your host, darlene Mahoney. 

Speaker 2: 0:28 

Does the idea of searching for senior housing solutions seem overwhelming and you just aren't sure where to even begin? Seniorlivingguidecom is created just for you. We are here to make sure your senior housing search is easy to navigate and right at your fingertips. We provide details on communities to include retirement 55 plus, independent assisted living, skilled nursing, memory care and even home health and home care solutions, all in one easy to navigate website allowing you to decide which best fits your needs and connecting you directly with those communities and senior solutions. Visit us online today at seniorlivingguidecom and you can start destressing. I would like to thank and express our sincere gratitude to our SeniorLivingGuidecom podcast sponsor. Transmed Care Long Distance Medical Transportation. When a loved one with a disability or medical condition needs to relocate, transmed Care is here to help with safe and secure nationwide medical transport services, with an emphasis on comfort and care. 

Speaker 3: 1:57 

TransMed Care Long Distance Medical Transportation is a business built on care. Another satisfied customer writes. 

Speaker 4: 2:04 

My family cannot recommend TransMed Care enough. They made dad comfortable every single step of the way on a very long trip and went above and beyond to take incredible care of him, and he had a great time. Thank you all for getting dad safely to his new home. 

Speaker 3: 2:20 

To learn more about TransMed Care, visit the website at trans-medcarecom. 

Speaker 2: 2:26 

I am here today with Laura Williams, and she graduated from St Ambrose University ina degree with occupational therapy and she has served the senior population for 25 years. Her passion for seniors led her to the Center for Vulnerable Voters when posed with voting-related questions. While working in a long-term care community, she joined the Center for Vulnerable Voters as their national training coordinator in March of 2023. She works part-time providing OT services to assisted living communities out in the beautiful state of Iowa. Thank you so much for joining us, laura. I'm really excited to jump in on this topic and it's so relevant right now. All the chit-chat on media and social and TV and everything else like that is about the upcoming election, so this is such important information we're going to share with our listeners today. 

Speaker 5: 3:23 

So thank you for inviting me. I'm excited to be here also. 

Speaker 2: 3:26 

Well, good, good. So I do want to check in with you as far as what exactly is Vulnerable Voters. 

Speaker 5: 3:33 

Absolutely yes. So Vulnerable Voters are those that serve like in the military, their families, those residing in residential communities, such as independence group or community-based homes, assisted living, even our folks that are homeless or in transitional shelters, memory care and, of course, our long-term care facilities, and then our seniors aging in place also are considered Vulnerable Voters. 

Speaker 2: 4:04 

Okay, well, I love the fact that we're going to talk about this because seniors, as we know, can have some cognitive issues. They can have some issues with transportation, all of these different things which can sometimes make voting for them more difficult, hence the Vulnerable. But it is such a great conversation because I think everyone needs to know their rights and needs to kind of understand the voting rules and all the stuff that goes along with it, because you think it's just walking into a poll and casting your vote, but there's so many different caveats these days, so I'm glad we're going to talk about some of those. Is there anything that you want to share that is really important as far as the rights that people need to know on the upfront? 

Speaker 5: 4:49 

Yes, the Center for Vulnerable Voters actually launched right around 2019, and our overall goal is to educate and empower Vulnerable Voters, their communities, their families, their caregivers, so that way they can advocate for and protect both the Vulnerable Voters and their votes. We came up with a senior citizen Bill of Rights pocket guide and that kind of just goes over some basic voting rights for seniors, and so I'd like to go over those, if that's okay. Yeah, let's do it. So the first one is the right to vote or to not vote, and that choice is yours and yours alone. The second one is the right to refuse assistance from unknown person or persons that you do not want help from. And the third one is the right to privacy, so no one has a right to ask you about your personal or private voting preferences or making a voting suggestion for you. It's strictly confidential. The fourth one is the right to redress, so if you believe that your rights have been violated, you have a right to report that to your local election authorities, and then also the right to have candidates visit your facility or your residence. You know you need to hear from your candidates and their policies and procedures and how they affect you. 

Speaker 2: 6:19 

Yeah, I think all of those are like fabulous and so important to notate as folks are talking with people. I think we're living kind of in a day and age where people are sharing a lot politically Like I do remember when I grew up we didn't talk about politics ever and then you know, if you even said, hey, who you're voting for, that was a personal thing, it's not something that you're out there talking about and things like that. It was almost like how much money do you make? It almost feels like it falls into the same realm of don't go in your mother's purse. You know, I never went into my mother's purse, it just never occurred to me. I would just die. 

Speaker 5: 7:00 

But it was kind of the same thing on the voting it's interesting because I grew up in that era too, where it was a very private, a private matter. You didn't discuss it, and now it's seems to be all out in the open. 

Speaker 2: 7:12 

Right, right. So I think it's good that, especially for our seniors that are living in senior communities to be very well aware that they're in control of the whole voting situation. I'm appreciating that you're sharing that, especially even having someone help them if they don't want to be helped. But they have a right to say no, I don't want your help, I want my. I can do it by myself, or I want this person's help, or what, my daughter's help or my family's help. That's what I would prefer versus somebody else coming in that I don't know. But they don't want to hurt someone's feelings or they think that they're in charge, especially if they're in a community or skilled or whatever the case may be that they think this person's in charge, so I have to, but they don't. 

Speaker 5: 7:54 

Exactly, they do not. They have have a right to privacy. They have a right to refuse help from anybody that they do not want help from, absolutely. 

Speaker 2: 8:03 

And they have a right not to vote. I thought that was interesting that you said that. 

Speaker 5: 8:07 

And they have a right not to vote. Exactly yes. 

Speaker 2: 8:10 

You know, I feel like if you're an American citizen and you have the cognitive ability and understanding of who is running, or for every single office, I think it's important that you do vote, but you don't have to. I know that there's at least one election that I didn't vote in because it was a slam dunk anyway, so I wasn't too worried about it, but I definitely appreciate that. So we want to talk a little bit about, like, suppression. So these are, like you know, hot topic words that we've been hearing so much in the last several years. You know, voter suppression, cohesion, ballot harvesting, ballot trafficking, all these different things. Can you tell us what they are, what's allowed, what's not allowed or even just the perimeters of those? 

Speaker 5: 9:00 

Yes, I would be happy to yes. So there's there's some key terms that are kind of important to be to understand because they are being talked about a lot right now. So one of the ones you mentioned was vote suppression, and that's a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. There is also something called vote coercion, or theft, and that's the use of intimidation or fear of reprisal to secure a vote for a specific candidate. So in some cases the perpetrator may simply fill out the ballot without the voters permission or authorization. So a couple examples of that is we've we do get a lot of calls at the Center for Vulnerable Voters and we did have a family member that called in to report that a home care provider was telling her father who to vote for. Another example is a family member called in to say that the her loved ones physical therapist had told her that anyone that votes for candidate A deserves to have their medication taken away. So this is especially concerning because when somebody relies on another for therapy services or self cares or medication and they're put in a position where they feel like they need to please the caregiver, which is what you mentioned before, or they're at risk of making that caregiver upset. That's a form of a form of coercion. 

Speaker 2: 10:39 

So I feel like that's probably harder for a senior that is aging in place and maybe has a child taking care of them or another family member, because they are super dependent on that person for a lot of things potentially. So I think it's important to to notate that as well and kind of concentrate on that, as the folks are listening that how would you maneuver around that, do you think? If you are aging in place and maybe your daughter is taking care of you and she's really pushing for a specific candidate and you're not? I don't really don't want to do that. So how do you kind of? What do you think? 

Speaker 5: 11:17 

That's really hard when it's a family member. We encourage our seniors to tell a trusted person that they're feeling pressured, and if it's a family member, I would encourage them just to speak up and say hey, you know, this is a private matter. I'm feeling pressured to vote how you want me to and this is really a private matter for me. 

Speaker 2: 11:44 

So it is just having that very frank, stern conversation with that family member, that caregiver, that this is, it's not your business and I'll vote. I don't even have to show you if you're. You know you're doing the, the mail in, if you choose to do the mail in, so that's something you can get, fill it out, send it back. So now I agree with that. 

Speaker 5: 12:04 

And even going to the polling place. I mean, if you can get out, going to the polling place might be, might be feel a little bit less pressured. You don't have that ballot sitting around at home where maybe your loved, your family member can see it. You just say, hey, I'm going to go vote at the polling place. 

Speaker 2: 12:20 

I do know that in a lot of areas, if you don't have the physical ability or the ability to drive your own self, there's a lot of different companies and nonprofits that are providing free rides to the polls for our seniors. So I think it's also maybe doing some research and finding and some of them are just as simple as, like Uber. I know that some areas I do believe that Uber did on voting day that they were giving free rides free rides to the polls. To the polls. To the polls yes, yeah, not to the lot of churches. 

Speaker 5: 12:55 

They grow the bar afterwards maybe maybe you might need to. 

Speaker 2: 13:00 

So, absolutely so. The churches, that's a great place. Folks that are, like, involved in church and or even just calling their local church, finding out if there is transportation to the polls, especially if they've got a van of some sort. So that's a really great idea. And it's not something I, you know, I had really thought about was the churches, so that is really good. 

Speaker 5: 13:19 

It's also the job of your precinct committeemen to help arrange transportation or provide transportation of their constituents to the polls. So that's somebody else you could reach out to is your precinct committeemen, and you can usually locate your precinct committeemen through, like your county offices If you're not sure who they are. 

Speaker 2: 13:40 

Okay, okay, that was my next question. I'm like, well, how do you find these folks? How? 

Speaker 5: 13:44 

do you find out who they? 

Speaker 2: 13:45 

are exactly so. No, that is really great information as well. So the other thing that you know is one of the biggest hot topic words is harvesting. I'll be honest, I'm a bit confused on that, because you see news stories on the about harvesting and I think it's legal or in some states is not legal in other states. 

Speaker 5: 14:06 

Correct. Yeah, so that does get very confusing because it is legal in some states and it is illegal in other states. So, and that is the non secure method of collecting absentee voters ballots and with the intention of dropping them off at the polling place or at a drop box, we do encourage and I'll maybe talk about that a little bit later too, as a safeguard when it comes to residential facilities or residential communities, that they have a policy in place to monitor that chain of custody when that ballot enters their facility till the time it leaves their facility. 

Speaker 2: 14:47 

So in the states where ballot harvesting is not legal, are communities having someone that's able to come in? I mean, are they an exception to the rule? Because sometimes those folks can knock it out and in the mail in it could get lost in the mail or it's going to a general mailbox or something. 

Speaker 5: 15:03 

Right, you want to check with your states, but most states do allow the voter to choose. Maybe like in some cases it's a family member, some cases an immediate family member Each state's a little bit different that that person can deliver that ballot to the polls, and some states do require the person delivering to sign off. So each state's a little bit different. So that's when I would encourage you to call your county, your county election authority, your local election authority, and find out what, what your procedure is, and sometimes even the election officials themselves will come and pick up the ballot for you. 

Speaker 2: 15:40 

Okay. 

Speaker 5: 15:41 

And that's a great way. 

Speaker 2: 15:42 

Yeah, and I think, being proactive, since we are quite a bit out from the general election. You know the big one to talk to your community and say, hey, what is policy, what is procedure, so you can plan. We're literally months and months out. So if you feel like you need to do a mail in ballot or you need to talk to a family member or you want to start looking at arranging your own transportation, if you don't want to go the same route that they're doing at your community, or if you like what they're doing, you know your site, your good and you're also in the now. 

Speaker 5: 16:16 

Yeah, exactly, Pre-planning is the key. Get a plan in place ahead of time. Don't wait till the you know you're going to vote on Tuesday. Don't wait till the Monday before to try and figure things out or core the election authority, because they're going to be swamped. 

Speaker 2: 16:31 

Right, 100%. Yes, it's going to probably get beep, beep, beep. I don't know when you call them. So one thing that you said and I didn't know what this was was ballot trafficking. 

Speaker 5: 16:42 

What is that? So ballot trafficking is the illegal collection or submission of election ballots, and there's really no defense for this practice, and this is where your residential communities are a little bit more susceptible to this. I have an interesting example of this. I was at the post office before Christmas and I was in line and the lady in front of me was asking about change of address and the postmaster said well, there's a new, a new procedure. And my son has moved out and he hasn't done his change of address yet. So when it was my turn in line, I asked him. I said well, what's this? What's this new procedure and why is there a new procedure? He said the new procedure is you submit your change of address as prior and then a letter will arrive at your home and you have 20 days to verify that. You were the one that made the request. And I said well, why? Why is that? And he said that there was a process change because during the last election, people were going to vote on election day only to discover that a ballot had been cast in their name and after much investigation, they discovered that people with ill intent had submitted change of address request on. Unsuspecting people then requested a ballot to be mailed to that new address, and they filled out the ballot and returned it. So these folks had no idea that a ballot had been cast in their name until they went to vote on election day, and so that's a form of an example of ballot trafficking. 

Speaker 2: 18:23 

Okay, this was not a ballot trafficking, as far as I know. I don't know exactly how it happened, but we moved into a house and, literally two years after we moved in, we received ballots for the people that were renting prior to the purchase. 

Speaker 5: 18:37 

Oh wow, Two years. 

Speaker 2: 18:39 

Yeah, and this is in the state of Florida, which they did not do the automatic mail out ballots. You had to request it. So the only thing I can think of is maybe the old address was on the information. While it was not something I think there was any ill intent on, it still was strange to get complete ballots that all I had to do. You know, and they're not mine, but I'm just like going, oh my gosh, it kind of weirded me out. The other thing is and I know we haven't really talked about this so much, but one thing that I think people don't realize and we may get to it a little bit later into more detail but when you move from state to state and area, you have to cancel your voter registration. I was a military spouse and after the last election I received something. I lived in the state of Georgia that said you know, do you want to cancel your registered, your voter registration? I haven't lived in Georgia since 2011. So it's been a, it's been a spell. I had no idea I was still registered there. Well, come to find out, I was also registered to vote in Virginia, so I was voting. I could vote in three states. I don't know technically if I could have, but I didn't even really realize that. I thought, as soon as you got a new driver's license and you said I'm going to register to vote, that your previous voter's registration was canceled. 

Speaker 5: 19:54 

That would be ideal, wouldn't it? 

Speaker 2: 19:57 

You know, if we can do electric cars and go to the moon, we should be able to do that 100%. I'm a live on the space coast. We have space rockets going off every few days. It's banana cakes, so they could definitely do that. I think it's just such a simple fix. 

Speaker 5: 20:11 

They definitely could, but we do really advocate for yeah, it's one of the first things I had my son do is like you got to cancel your voter registration here in in Illinois before you moved to Wisconsin. And he's like, well, that should automatically happen. And I'm like it, it should, but it doesn't. So we really advocate for voters and family members to help their loved ones update their current voter registration information and then, of course, make sure they're canceling their voter registration at their previous address. 

Speaker 2: 20:43 

Right, I had no idea. It was so strange to get this letter and of course you know, last election Georgia had all this hullabaloo. So they I think we're trying to be really proactive right afterwards because I got actually I said no, cancel it. Then I got another letter that says I want to make sure you cancel. This, basically, is what the gist of the letter was. I'm like they are really just trying to make sure that there's not even a thought and I don't even know what the word is that they didn't even look like there was something incorrect going on in that state. So I really appreciated, appreciated that. But it also had me look into other states I lived in and I still had one in Virginia. 

Speaker 5: 21:24 

So it's amazing, isn't it? 

Speaker 2: 21:27 

It's, it's, it is amazing, it's amazing. Let's talk a little bit about ranked choice voting as something you'd mentioned. So what is that? 

Speaker 5: 21:35 

Ranked choice voting has been around for for many years and I believe there's some places in California have had it for almost 20 years, but it really it replaces our plurality type voting system, where the candidate that receives the most votes wins. So ranked choice voting is a system that, let's say you have three candidates, you have to rank them first, second and third, and then there's a computer based algorithm that reconfigure those votes if the first candidate did not receive the predetermined amount of votes. It's very confusing when you ask voters to rank multiple candidates and it's hard. It's hard enough to learn about two or three candidates, let alone. Some of these races will have 20 and 30 candidates and they want you to rank them all. It's complicated and whenever you have anything complicated increases the risk of of voter error, which could cause the ballot to be rejected and thrown out and then your vote not counting at all. It increases the need for seniors and vulnerable voters to ask for assistance when something's more complicated. Obviously you need more instructions on on the task, on how to complete the task, and it increases the risk of them being more influenced. So whenever there's there's no privacy to the vote, you're a little bit more likely to be influenced. So it's it's complicated, it's confusing, it's challenging. We had an elderly gentleman state that this new voting process, the rank choice voting, he felt is deeply confusing and he felt it was like something designed to keep him from voting. So that was really, really disheartening to hear. 

Speaker 2: 23:36 

Yeah, I have never heard of that before. That's, you know, not something I've ever experienced. I didn't even know it was a thing. I didn't even know the definition of what it was, if I'm understanding right, just to kind of go over what you just said. So, basically, it's you rank in order of who you want. So you rank like. 

Speaker 5: 23:53 

so like one, two, three yeah right, One, two, three and, depending on the, the predetermined. It's very, it's even confusing for me to explain. 

Speaker 2: 24:04 

So so this is my question If you get to the poll and you've got three candidates and you really don't want the other two, you don't want them, you absolutely don't. You want this one person. He's your best person, or she's your best person, or whatever the case may be Can you just do one and not do the two, three? 

Speaker 5: 24:21 

I believe you can. But let's say you vote for candidate A and candidate A let's say they're. They were ranked last on the list. That person is completely thrown out. And those remaining votes, which you don't have, any, so your vote hasn't counted at all. Your votes thrown out. You don't get. You don't get your vote counted at all. The folks that do rank, that do rank those. They're reconfigured. There's an algorithm that's reconfigured those votes until they reach that predetermined amount of votes for that winning candidate. 

Speaker 2: 24:58 

So we've talked about this for several minutes and I'm still super confused. So I can't imagine how, going to the polls yes, especially if you're doing it on the fly that you're you're trying to figure out what the heck, what the heck this? 

Speaker 5: 25:12 

is. It's very confusing and complicated and we don't have ranked chose voting where where I'm at, Thank goodness Cause I would be thoroughly confused. 

Speaker 2: 25:21 

Yeah, yeah, no, I've never heard of it, so hopefully it's not something that like catches on in popularity through other yes, other markets or states or areas. What are some safeguards of the three main voting methods? 

Speaker 5: 25:37 

Yeah. So there's three main voting methods and the first one is your typical onsite in person voting, where you hop in your car and you drive drive to the polling place, whether that be early or on election day. So all those polling places are required by federal law to be handicapped accessible entryways, wheelchair accessible, height voting booths. They need to provide large ballot markers. They should have visual and audio assistance for folks that need that, need those that assistance. You can also receive assistance from election authorities, and your election authorities are, you know, one from each political party, which is a safeguard you have to your checks and balances there. Those election authorities are trained in ensuring those voting laws are followed. The big thing is they're able to answer questions accurately because they've been, they've been trained in the laws. They ensure that proper chain of custody. So we talked about the ballot harvesting prior and how that that there's an insecure chain of custody. So this ensures a proper chain of custody. And then it also allows poll watchers to provide an extra layer of safeguards making sure that those election rules, rules are followed. 

Speaker 2: 27:02 

Okay, I like the fact that you mentioned it has to be wheelchair accessible. Yes, yeah. 

Speaker 5: 27:08 

There's also some states that do offer curbside voting, which is which is really nice. Just arrange that ahead of time. You can pull right up in those two election authorities. One from each political party will come out and provide you with with a ballot. If you're 75 years or older, or disabled, you can go at the front of the line. 

Speaker 2: 27:25 

That's a good tip, that's that's a fast pass. That is yes, cause those lines can get really long some places. So I know that in the last election there were and I don't know if they're doing it this year. I haven't really heard is the places where you can go drop them in boxes and different parts of the state or area or what have you um like prior to the election, the drop boxes, like prior to the election day? Is that something that is is going to be in this election? You may not even know, but I just thought I'd throw that out. 

Speaker 5: 27:54 

It does vary per state, like my state, does have a drop box in their county. So it does vary per state. So I think it is. It is out there. I'm just not sure which, if it's all states, or Okay yeah. 

Speaker 2: 28:09 

I know that in my area we didn't have drop boxes. I don't believe we did I could be completely wrong, so don't quote me on that but we did have the drop box at the actual in person voting. So if you did have a mail in ballot or whatever, you could take it and drop it and you didn't have to stand in the big line. So I thought that was kind of a good idea, especially if you're you know you're running late and you're not going to make it within that window Because you know you got to depend on the post office to get it there. Snipety snap it, you know, especially if you're out of the area or something. 

Speaker 5: 28:39 

Well, that's one thing you want to be sure and track too with your absentee ballots is do you have a ballot Tracker so you can track your ballot, so you know that it's actually been received? 

Speaker 2: 28:50 

I know that that is kind of cool. So let's talk a little bit about in person voting at a residential community. 

Speaker 5: 28:59 

Yes. So not all states participate in this and the states that do seem to all do it a little bit different. I really like it because it provides the same or very similar safeguards as a traditional polling place. You know, handicap accessible. You have election authorities, one from each political party, to ensure election laws are followed and questions are answered correctly. Some states do ensure that proper chain of custody where the election authorities will deliver the ballots to the residential community and stay there while the resident marks their ballots and then secure that ballot and return it back to the election office to be counted on election day. Some states send election authorities into aid voters for the voters request after they've received their ballot. And even some states, if they provide a polling place at a facility like a nursing facility, they really encourage, like the assisted living residents and the independent living residents, the whole continuum of care, to come in and take advantage of that polling place right there in their community. I really like that service. I mean it's right there in the residents community. 

Speaker 2: 30:22 

Yeah, I think that that's a great idea, for sure, I know here in the state of Florida we have so many residential communities. I think it would almost be a good idea if they've set up polling places there instead of churches potentially. But you know they didn't call and ask for my opinion, so Now that is a great idea. 

Speaker 5: 30:40 

That used to be in my state of Illinois is all the polling places used to be at nursing facilities or residential communities and the public went into and it was great because the residents loved people watching. 

Speaker 2: 30:54 

A hundred percent. Yeah, yeah, they can make new friends, you just never know. So I really do like that. So we are going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back and we're going to talk about a couple of different things as far as how to safeguard yourself, and then another thing that I wanted to touch on as well is how does voting affect those that are in memory care, the memory care side? Is that something that is a caveat or not? I don't know. So we'll get to that on the other side of the break. 

Speaker 6: 31:27 

Hi, this is Andrew Brainerd, owner of TransMed Care Long Distance Medical Transportation. We are proud to help make this podcast possible. When a loved one under medical care needs to relocate, TransMed Care is here to help. We offer the very best in nationwide medical transport, with fully appointed vehicles and a team of caring medical professionals At TransMed Care. Nothing is more important than bringing your loved one home safely. Visit our website at trans-medcarecom. 

Speaker 2: 31:56 

And we are back from our break and we do want to continue to thank our sponsors TransMed Care, Long Distance Medical Transportation for all they do and all their support. And we are back with Laura and I wanted to find out. So some safeguarding for seniors, what are some tips? 

Speaker 5: 32:14 

So a few tips are. There are several states and I know we talked about this before the break is tracking your absentee ballot, so I would encourage folks to call your local election authority and find out how you can do that. Sometimes it's posted on the website, sometimes you go online, sometimes it's posted in-house, but you can definitely call your election authority for help. The other thing I would watch for is election mail. So there's a difference between political mail and official election mail, and all official election mail will have a logo that's authorized by the United States Post Office on the envelope and you can look up that logo on the internet. I had a situation where some ladies in my neighboring county there was four ladies they did not vote in a certain election yet a ballot was cast in their name and again that would be a form of ballot trafficking. But after many, many months of digging and talking we discovered that all four have been receiving an excessive amount of election mail without that election logo, that official election logo, on there. And I'm not accusing the companies of doing anything wrong, it was just something we noticed. So now all these four ladies, they throw away all the unofficial election mail. They don't even open it. They encourage their peers to do the same. They now call their election authorities, whether they vote by mail or by person, to track their ballot, and when they do not vote, they do the same thing. They make sure that a ballot has not been cast in their name. They're very proactive. I think that's what you mentioned before. We have to be proactive and tracking your ballots a great way and then always be careful of someone knocking on your door and offering to return your ballot to the election authority Again. You'll probably have precinct committeemen and candidates knocking on your door with information, but they should never offer to take your ballot or take an application from you and return it to the election authority. They should just be providing you with information. So never hand over your ballot to anyone that you do not trust. 

Speaker 2: 34:41 

Yeah, it used to be and it still is. You couldn't get through an election season without seeing nothing but political commercials and banter and this, that and the other, where by the time it's over, you just want the election to be over so they'll go away. And people are not. I mean right now. So many people are now doing streaming with no commercials, so it's definitely harder to hit those people, get to them, and they have to find a new way. And the funny thing is is not digital, clearly, is one way, but mail You're going back to like the old fashioned way of reaching people, because it is getting harder and harder to reach them on television, which was so successful for so many years and it still is, but it's definitely. You know the viewership is definitely declining and you're right. What comes in the mail? There's so much different things that are political, and it's not even just maybe a candidate, but it's maybe a bill that they want to put through, or this, that and the other, and it's just overwhelming. 

Speaker 5: 35:40 

It's. Yeah, it can be very confusing. Well, and the third party organizations. They can legally send out an application for an absentee ballot with the intent of that application going to the official election authority. But I even encourage people just throw it away. Go through your local election authority is the way to go If you want to call them for questions, you want to pay attention to their mail and just really work with your local election authority. 

Speaker 2: 36:08 

Yeah, absolutely, and one of the things that you mentioned is I've had canvassers come to my home and chat about who are you voting for, what are you interested in? But they should never help you fill out a ballot as well, correct? 

Speaker 5: 36:21 

Correct, absolutely. 

Speaker 2: 36:22 

Let me help you. 

Speaker 5: 36:24 

No. 

Speaker 2: 36:24 

I'm good, yeah, okay, no, exactly, you know, I almost want to say you really shouldn't be opening the door for anybody anyway, just as a safety precaution, because you know the times that we live in. So one of the things that I also wanted to talk to you about that I mentioned right before we took our break, is seniors that are in cognitive decline and they're maybe on the memory care side or just aging in place and they have or have been diagnosed with either dementia or Alzheimer's. And this is clearly talking about seniors, because there's all kinds of different things that could be somewhat similar to the younger population or any population. So give me some ideas on how that works. 

Speaker 5: 37:06 

Yes. So if someone is unaware of what's going on around them, or they do not know which candidates are running in an election or they can't respond to their name, they should not have an absentee ballot request or a ballot marked for them. If they're unable to indicate they wish to vote in an election or indicate their free choice their free preferred choice on a ballot, you know, they should not have a voter registration application filled out for them, they should not have an application for a vote by mail or an absentee ballot filled out for them, and they should not have a ballot marked for them. It's actually illegal to do so. 

Speaker 2: 37:52 

Okay, so that's good to know. I know when my dad had dementia, there is no way he could have determined who to vote for. I mean, I as his daughter, knowing you know what I know about him, could have probably guessed for him, but that's not my right to do that. It's not my vote. No matter how passionate you feel, it is not it is that person's vote. 

Speaker 5: 38:16 

Right and it's okay. If you know it's okay that they don't vote. A lot of people think he has to vote. He's voted his whole life but if he's unable to make a free choice, then we need to protect him and not be voting for him. 

Speaker 2: 38:37 

So as far as residential communities responsibilities for the memory care side, is there anything that's set in place for that? 

Speaker 5: 38:46 

Yes. So there's things that we recommend that the residential communities can do, or a family member can speak to the residential directors, so just politely asking them what safeguards they have in place to protect their loved one and their vote. If your state offers onsite in person polling for residential communities, talk to the director about that, tell her about the benefits of it and maybe even help her locate the contact information for the election. You know the election authority so she can request that service. Some other things to ask residential directors are is the staff educated on federal and state laws? Do they have good management oversight? If there's absentee ballots coming into the community, is there a procedure in place to protect those ballots from the time they enter the community till the time they're either put in the mail or returned to the election authority? So those are a few things that family members can ask residential directors about policies and procedures that hopefully they have in place. Another thing that family members can do is there's a great website called Voterefvotefcom and that's a public site and it lists voters history, so you can go on that site and anybody can utilize it to look up vote history of yourself or your loved ones, and I know that's how some family members have discovered that their loved ones had voted and they were unaware. So not all states participate in the website, but it's several do. 

Speaker 2: 40:34 

Okay, that is fabulous information. So we're going to add that link into the content for anybody that's listening to the podcast on any of the apps or on seniorlivingguidecom podcast, so that if they didn't catch it you know they can click right on it. But can you tell us what it is one more time, please? 

Speaker 5: 40:52 

Sure, so it's called Voterefvotefcom. It's a Voterefvotef reference and it's just a public website that provides voter history of registered voters and, again, not all states participate in it, but most states do. And that is this. Anybody can go on there and you can look up Vote History of Yourself or a Loved One. 

Speaker 2: 41:19 

So you say that yourself or a loved one. So do you have to have information like a social security number or private information? Just a name, oh wow. 

Speaker 5: 41:29 

Just a name and it's public. It is public knowledge, so it's something that if the state allows it, then it will be on that Voterefvotefcom. 

Speaker 2: 41:41 

That's really great to hear and that's a great link to go on there, especially if you do have someone that is in a memory care facility or you have concerns that they don't have the ability to vote to. Just kind of double check on that. 

Speaker 5: 41:55 

If you have a loved one in another state. I mean, that's how I discovered my aunt had a ballot cast in her name in both states for one particular election and she was registered in both states and she didn't realize it. So I just picked up the phone and said, hey, can I walk you through the process of canceling your voter registration in your secondary residence? And she had no idea she was still registered to vote. So we went ahead and did that. 

Speaker 2: 42:24 

Yeah. Is there anything else that your thinking would be beneficial for our listeners prior to jumping off this podcast? 

Speaker 5: 42:33 

Well, I would say that we do have a couple guides for residential communities and a couple family guides on our website that people can download for free, and it will go over the safeguards. So you'd have that all listed in one place, and there's a couple articles in there too that are kind of nice to read. There's a case study and then an article that appeared in AMAC Magazine that is interesting. 

Speaker 2: 43:01 

Share that website. 

Speaker 5: 43:03 

Centerforvulnerablevotersorg. Okay, great. 

Speaker 2: 43:09 

That'll be a great resource for our listeners as well, so I appreciate that. I think we are going to sign off on this podcast episode. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with someone that you love, and it is also available on Apple Podcasts, spotify. We are doing really great on good pods, so check that one out and, until next time, enjoy your day.