Your Vote Matters ~ Resources to Ensure Older Adults & People with Disabilities Can Vote

California Health Advocates > COVID-19 > Your Vote Matters ~ Resources to Ensure Older Adults & People with Disabilities Can Vote

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Karen Fletcher

October 22, 2020

With a critical election coming up on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, it’s important that each person has the opportunity to vote and that each vote is counted. The COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires can create potential legal and logistical barriers for people getting their votes cast. Below is a helpful list of resources put together by our partners, Justice in Aging that can help our older adults, people disabilities and those with limited English proficiency make sure they can vote and their vote is counted.

National Council on Aging: Healthy Voting
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Memo Reaffirming Nursing Home Residents’ Right to Vote
National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center: Voting Resources
American Bar Association Commission on Law & Aging and the Penn Memory Center: Assisting Cognitively Impaired Individuals with Voting: A QUICK GUIDE
National Guardianship Association: Guardians: Protecting the Right to Vote
Center for Civic Design: Language Access and New Citizens
The Arc: Disability Voter Guide
Administration for Community Living: Voting Resources for Older Americans and People with Disabilities
Caring Across Generations: Guide to Voting While Caregiving and Guide to Voting with LTSS
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law: VOTE. It’s Your Right. Guide to the Voting Rights of People with Mental Disabilities

The national, nonpartisan Election Protection program is available to all voters who need information or assistance at all stages of voting, and have helplines in multiple languages to assist voters who encounter problems.

In addition, there are now ways you can track your ballot to make sure your vote gets delivered and counted. In California, you can sign up for “Where’s My Ballot?” to receive alerts by email, text message or automated telephone calls that will update you on the status of your ballot. You can sign up for the tracking tool at WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov, and will need to enter in your name, birthday and ZIP code.

Election results can directly affect the health and well being of our older adults and people with disabilities, as the people in power determine the expansion or dismantling of key programs providing basic needs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. If you haven’t already, make sure to vote and help any loved ones get their votes cast and counted too. Every vote counts. We all make a difference.

Karen Joy Fletcher

Our blogger Karen Joy Fletcher is CHA’s Communications Director. With a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley, she is the online “public face” of the organization, provides technical expertise, writing and research on Medicare and other health care issues. She is responsible for digital content creation, management of CHA’s editorial calendar, and managing all aspects of CHA’s social media presence. She loves being a “communicator” and enjoys networking and collaborating with the passionate people and agencies in the health advocacy field. See her current articles.

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