>Published Tuesday, December 1, 1998, in the Miami Herald
>------------------------------------------------------------
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 Retarded man's vote questioned
================================

>ST. PETERSBURG -- (AP) -- William J. Kennedy cherishes his right to vote
>and proudly sports his "I voted" sticker on his wheelchair. He loves to
>follow current affairs on television.
>
>But the 56-year-old St. Petersburg resident caused a stir when he showed up
>to cast his ballot in the fall election.
>
>He is mildly retarded, with an IQ tested at 62.
>
>Advocates say encouraging retarded people to vote helps them become
>functioning members of society, taking control of their lives. But some
>poll workers question whether Kennedy's vote and the votes of other
>retarded citizens are being manipulated.
>
>"There is no way that man knew what he was doing. He was just laughing and
>laughing and laughing," said Alberta McGowan, a poll worker who saw Kennedy
>vote. "The man could not walk. He could not write. He could not talk. He
>could not differentiate between right and wrong or one person from
>another."
>
>McGowan said she watched staffers from Pinellas Association for Retarded
>Citizens (PARC) bring a number of retarded citizens to her precinct, and
>listened as two women from the agency helped Kennedy and another voter in
>the booth.
>
>"She said, "You want to vote for Bush, don't you? You like Bush. Don't you
>like Bush?' I never heard her even mention Buddy MacKay's name," McGowan
>said. "This is a disgrace, taking advantage of those illiterate people like
>that."
>
>PARC officials -- including one of the women McGowan watched -- strongly
>denied they swayed any of their clients' voting and said McGowan must have
>misunderstood.
>
>Developmentally disabled citizens are eligible to vote unless a court has
>specifically found them to be mentally incompetent, which is rare. But
>concern about retarded citizens voting is not unusual.
>
>The issue is bubbling up more frequently as social workers increasingly
>encourage retarded citizens to become more active participants in society.
>Disabilities laws also have made it easier to vote, and the "motor voter"
>law of 1993 is pushing state social service agencies to register their
>residents to vote.
>
>Selena Roe, director of the PARC apartments where Kennedy lives, said some
>of the concerns stem from people not understanding retarded citizens. For
>instance, she said, Kennedy's mental capacity to some people might seem
>worse than it is because he has cerebral palsy and is difficult to
>understand.
>
>"You get into very dangerous ground when you start saying someone who's
>different should not be able to vote," Roe said.
>
>And Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Dorothy Ruggles is not particularly
>worried about retarded citizens voting.
>
>"We run into this question a lot, just as we do with people in nursing
>homes who are taken in to vote," she said.
>
>"It's a touchy issue, but I don't have any jurisdiction over that if the
>person hasn't been declared mentally incompetent. . . . I know it means an
>awful lot to them to vote, and they do pay attention -- sometimes more than
>you and I do."