North Carolina made national news when it was reported the criminally insane and the mentally retarded were casting votes in the 2012 general election. The director of these facilities stated he is proud to allow the incompetent to vote, and will continue the "diseased of mind" to have a say in the electoral process. Carolina Journal reported the following:
J. Luckey Welsh, director of the Division of State Operated Healthcare Facilities at the Department of Health and Human Services, told Carolina Journal there are about 3,000 people residing in the state facilities. Voting records obtained by CJ showed only 73 individuals from six facilities cast votes that were accepted for the Nov. 6 election. Sixty-one of those voters were new registrants. “I think we allowed our citizens the right to vote. I am happy we allowed them to do it,” he replied.
Most of the wards in a state mental hospital have
been committed. However, law dictates
that the “institutionalized” have rights:
Many residents in state
facilities have been declared incompetent by a judge, and have been assigned
guardians to make their decisions. A North Carolina law governing persons with
the treatment of persons with mental health and developmental disabilities,
G.S. 122 C-58, states that “each adult client of a facility keeps the same
right as any other citizen of North Carolina to exercise all civil rights,
including the right to dispose of property, execute instruments, make
purchases, enter into contractual relationships, register and vote, bring civil
actions, and marry and get a divorce, unless the exercise of a civil right has
been precluded by an unrevoked adjudication of incompetency.” Based on the above language, some guardians of persons who have been judged incompetent believe their wards have lost the right to vote.
In 1973, then-state Attorney General Robert Morgan’s office issued an opinion saying that the state constitution does not prohibit the incompetent from voting. Since then, North Carolina apparently has allowed persons judged incompetent to vote.
I would say anyone who
voted for Barack Obama is an incompetent, but that’s just my personal
opinion. Here are the facilities that
allowed the “diseased of mind” to vote; again reported by the Carolina Journal:
Voters by facilityState Board of Elections records examined by CJ show voting activity in six of the 14 facilities.
• J. Iverson Riddle Developmental Center in Morganton: eight voters (five new registrations), all voted by mail.
• Murdoch Developmental Center in Butner: 12 voters (all registered on Oct. 11), 11 early voting, one voted in person on election day.
• Black Mountain Neuro-Medical Treatment Center: four voters (one new registration), all early voting.
• Broughton Hospital in Morganton: 17 voters (12 new registrations), all voted by mail. Registrations totaled 81.
• Central Regional Hospital in Butner: 22 voters (all new registrations), 10 voted by mail, 12 used early voting. Registrations totaled 63.
• Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro: 10 voters (nine new registrations), three voted by mail, six used early voting, one voted in person. Total registrations were 34 with 21 of them new
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