Unable to vote

Faith — When a person unexpectedly ends up in the hospital on election day, how do they cast their ballot? Two nurses launched a pilot program to help bedridden citizens vote absentee. Now they are campaigning to make this possible in all hospitals. They need support from signers like you to get the attention of policy-makers. If you think every vote counts on election day, sign their petition to let the voices of hospital patients be heard. Enable hospitalized patients to vote from bedside Lenox Hill Hospital started this petition to Board of Elections and it now has 582 signatures Sign now with a click My colleague and I implemented a program for the 2018 Midterm elections, which allowed for admitted patients at the hospital we work at in New York City the ability to vote from their hospital bed. Our program involved the two of us, and a number of volunteers, tireless running back and forth between our hospital in Manhattan and the Boards of Election offices in Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau counties. We made these trips on both the Monday before the election dropping off applications for absentee ballots and picking up ballots and on Election day to return the ballots.  We saw a problem in that New York State (a large number of other states) currently has no process in place which considers voters unexpectedly admitted to the hospital. The law in NY (and in other states) requires a family member to be their proxy for absentee voting, but in many of our patient's cases, there was no family available/or willing to leave the patient's side.  We were granted an exception allowing our hospital administrators and volunteers to act as proxy for any patient or family member interested in voting. We would like to see this oversight be acknowledged and rectified and are hoping to team up with the New York Board of Elections (and election boards across the country) to see what we can come up with to help patients who go into labor before their due date, fall and break their hip Sunday before the election, are hospitalized with pneumonia the week of an election, or have to accompany a family member or child to the hospital unexpectedly. Early voting will help for sure, but will not solve the problem entirely. One of our proposed solutions would be to make hospitals a polling station for employees and patients and their families. In 2020 it seems that we could print a ballot (at least for anywhere in the state the hospital is located) on site and allow people unable to leave the hospital the ability to vote absentee from the hospital.  We are hoping to get this message to the right people at the Board of Elections, or elsewhere, who might be able to help in our fight to accommodate hospitalized patients in their ability to vote. We are already working with Patientvoting.com and would love for more organizations to get involved! Here is a link to one of the article written about our project https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/nyregion/new-york-today-helping-women-in-labor-vote.html Sign now with a click Visit petition page At Change.org, we believe in the voice of everyday people. Is there something that you want to change? Start a petition today The person (or organization) who started this petition is not affiliated with Change.org. Change.org did not create this petition and is not responsible for the petition content. Unsubscribe from emails like this Unsubscribe from all Change.org emails Manage your email preferences  ·  Privacy policy We'd love to hear from you! Contact us through our help center. Change.org  ·  548 Market St #29993, San Francisco, CA 94104-5401, USA