Dementia and the Voter

[drool_n_yank]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18916-2004Sep13.html?referrer=email

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 14, 2004; Page A01

Florida neurologist Marc Swerdloff was taken aback when one of his patients with advanced dementia voted in the 2000 presidential election. The man thought it was 1942 and Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. The patient's wife revealed that she had escorted her husband into the booth.

"I said 'Did he pick?' and she said 'No, I picked for him,' " Swerdloff said. "I felt bad. She essentially voted twice" in the Florida election, which gave George W. Bush a 537-vote victory and the White House.

But is the Dementia a side effect of viewing to much FOX news ?

[liontamer]

1. The republicans are the party of the demented

Charlton Heston, Reagan, Zell Miller these people were all clearly demented, but people let them talk anyway. In Reagan's case they let him be president. If more people were aware of the early signs of dementia, and had the guts to have elderly, demented relatives declared legally incompetent, the republican party would shrink dramatically

[jwirr]

2. Republicans

in our area tend to hang around nursing homes, etc. around election time so they can assist elderly voters!! I wonder how many of them "pick the candidate" for the voter?

[El Supremo]

3. My dad voted absentee for my mother who has Alzheimer's.

He couldn't stand to see her vote for Bush, Dole or *. Now that he is dead And Mother is in a nursing home, I came close to doing the same thing. But I've never got around to reregistering her. And I'd have to fake her signature.

[Carla in Ca]

4. This might explain *'s problems

From Boston Globe. Sounds scary.



<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/09/14/a_medical_cause_for_bushisms/>

[sniffa]

5. demented voter heLping the eLderLy vote?

[Moderator]

6. Previously posted, please discuss here, thanks

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=825095