Summary
Voters with special needs, including persons with disabilities and the elderly, can be assisted in voting by a trusted person of choice.
Obligations
Election Parts
Issues
Quotes
- The Committee recalls that, under article 29 of the Convention, the State party is required to adapt its voting procedures, by ensuring that they are “appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use”, and, where necessary, allowing persons with disabilities, upon their request, assistance in voting. It is by so doing that the State party will ensure that persons with intellectual disabilities cast a competent vote, on an equal basis with others, while guaranteeing voting secrecy.
- In general: the State party is under an obligation to take measures to prevent similar violations in the future, including by: (…) (ii) Enacting laws that recognize, without any “capacity assessment”, the right to vote for all persons with disabilities, including those with more need of support, and that provide for adequate assistance and reasonable accommodation in order for persons with disabilities to be able to exercise their political rights.
- Where persons with disabilities need assistance in order to vote or express their opinion, member states should ensure that they are allowed to be accompanied by a person of their choice, for example in the voting booth when casting their vote. “Assistance” here means helping the person with disabilities to express his or her decision, not taking the decision in his or her place.
- Supported decision-making means that a person can receive the necessary assistance to adopt certain decisions in life, including when exercising the right to vote. Such mechanisms should replace the substituted decision-making ones, providing persons with disabilities with the necessary support to exercise their electoral and political rights without undue limitation.
- Supported decision-making means that a person can receive the necessary assistance to adopt certain decisions in life, including when exercising the right to vote. Such mechanisms should replace the substituted decision-making ones, providing persons with disabilities with the necessary support to exercise their electoral and political rights without undue limitation.
- Voting procedures and facilities should be accessible to people with disabilities so that they are able to exercise their democratic rights, and allow, where necessary, the provision of assistance in voting, with respect to the principle that voting must be individual.