BOSTON — Residents of Massachusetts nursing homes have been devastated by the pandemic. More than two-thirds of all COVID-19 deaths in the commonwealth happened at long-term care facilities.
25 Investigates has learned there is concern that restrictions in place, meant to protect them during the pandemic, could impact nursing home residents' right to vote.
Among some of the potential roadblocks, nursing home residents are discouraged from leaving their facilities because of risk of exposure to the virus. Family members, who might have helped them in previous elections, still have restricted visits. And voter registration information might be dated.
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"Our residents have the right to vote and exercise that right. So, we feel very strongly that they are given that opportunity here, said Lori Samse of Carlton Willard Village, a long-term care facility in Bedford.
The staff at Carlton Willard Village is making sure their residents don’t lose their right to vote.
Another employee, Erica Kelley, told Boston 25 News anchor and investigative reporter Kerry Kavanaugh that they were proactive.
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“We started back in August reaching out to all the residents asking if they had submitted their absentee ballot request forms yet,” Kelley said.
Before COVID-19, some of the Bedford residents would leave to vote in person at polls or elections officials would come to them. Both risky propositions in a pandemic.
“Currently all our residents are voting by absentee ballot,” Samse said, adding they are making sure residents have the support they need to have their voices heard this election.
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“We’ve checked them off on a list to make sure they’re all arriving and everyone’s getting the ballots they’ve requested. Once they arrive we deliver them to their rooms and then they get sealed up,” Kelley said.
Ballots are placed in a drop box, which is kept under lock and key. A staff member delivers them directly to the town hall. But, some advocates fear the diligence of this staff in Bedford is an exception rather the norm. Those advocates issued an urgent reminder that nursing home residents have the right to vote, even in a pandemic.
Together they wrote an editorial noting some 18,000 ballots were rejected in the Massachusetts primary and they worry, “that the ballots of older citizens and people with disabilities living in nursing homes and similar facilities are most at risk, and that these citizens will not have the support they need to fill them out and submit them.”
They added some protocols in place because of coronavirus could be insurmountable barriers.
The federal government has weighed in. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a memo affirming the right of nursing home residents to exercise their right to vote. CMS encouraged collaboration between states, localities and nursing home operators to ensure residents' rights aren’t impeded.
“Our residents and seniors in general are very important in our country and they certainly [should] be given the opportunity to express their opinions and thought,” Samse said. “They certainly should be given just as many rights as any other citizens.”
25 Investigates reached out to the Secretary of the Commonwealth about the matter. A spokesperson said family members can request a ballot on behalf of a nursing home resident to be sent to the nursing home. And if someone is admitted into a home within seven days of an election, they can designate in writing for someone to hand-deliver a ballot to them and return it.
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