From KCCI-TV, Des Moines:

An Iowa woman who volunteers for the McCain campaign is challenging the absentee ballot her son cast for Barack Obama, saying her son does not have the mental capacity to make an independent decision.

Brenda Lyddon’s son Christopher Willis, 26, is developmentally delayed and lives in a group home in Grinnell, Iowa. Lyddon says she asked group home staffers not to let her son vote, but that they did anyway. The executive director of the group home said his staffers would never attempt to influence the vote of a resident.

Iowa Secretary of State Michael Mauro told KCCI that if someone expresses an interest in voting, even if he or she is developmentally delayed, that person has a right to vote.

Mauro said if a judge were to rule someone as incompetent to vote, then that person couldn’t vote.

(With video)

Earlier story: Dementia patient allegedly pressured to cast ballot — Des Moines Register

Reports that an 87-year-old Council Bluffs woman was allegedly pressured to vote absentee by a Democratic campaign volunteer raise suspicions that some people who have diminished mental capacity are being targeted, a Republican official said.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Campaign 2008, intellectual/developmental disabilities, voting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.