u/Other-Cantaloupe4765

As the title says, I work in an inpatient psychiatric facility. There’s no facility system that would allow registered adult patients to vote in elections. No kind of facilitation going on to allow that.

I want to facilitate this process to help patients exercise their voting rights. But I need to know the laws.

- Are ALL adult patients able to vote? Or only those with a certain commitment status (201 vs 302) or diagnosis (ie depression vs psychosis)?

- Are only previously registered adults able to vote? Or do they have the right to register at the facility?

- Is it illegal to just… not bring in ballots or help facilitate voting ie not give the opportunity vs actively denying the opportunity?

- Is it legal to assist those who ask for assistance in filling out a ballot?

- Is there a way for me to facilitate this? Or a program where someone would visit the facility specifically to facilitate this?

- Are the laws applicable to local, state, and federal elections or only some of those?

- What are the applicable laws so I can reference them when bringing this to my facility’s attention?

I wasn’t super close to them. We worked on different units most of the time but interacted in passing. It’s just crazy that two people working at the same small hospital killed themselves within two weeks of each other.

Kinda puts into perspective how hard the job can be on top of managing your own stuff. Take care of yourselves and communicate well with your coworkers.