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Former president Jimmy Carter in 2019.John Amis/AP
This week, quickly after his one centesimal birthday, former President Jimmy Carter was capable of vote in his house state of Georgia—partially due to protections below the Voting Rights Act. As his grandson Jason Carter defined in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, voting help protections in Georgia enable relations to assist solid absentee ballots (the vote can nonetheless be discarded if a signature or mark on the poll doesn’t match what’s on file, per Georgia legislation).
“He sat down and informed all people what he wished to do, and was enthusiastic about it,” Jason Carter informed Tapper. “My aunt dropped his poll [at] an absentee drop field, identical to hundreds and hundreds of different Georgians.”
Jimmy Carter simply voted. His grandson explains how. pic.twitter.com/Ax1Ulvt9RR
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 17, 2024
Even when Carter doesn’t contemplate himself disabled, many getting old folks profit from incapacity rights legal guidelines and protections. Part 208 of the Voting Rights Act ensures that “any voter who requires help to vote by cause of blindness, incapacity, or incapacity to learn or write could also be given help by an individual of the voter’s alternative.”
Lately, Republicans have attacked voters’ proper to help, typically with carve-outs for shut relations. However courts have repeatedly discovered such actions unconstitutional. In Texas, in 2022, a federal courtroom dominated that folks helping voters can additional clarify poll measures if requested; simply final month in Alabama, a federal choose additionally dominated that the state was obligated to let voters get assist from any particular person of their alternative. Whereas some folks, like Carter, select to, it’s not an possibility—or desire—for everybody.
Some getting old folks in Georgia nonetheless face limitations to voting, even when their proper to help hasn’t been as harshly attacked. A current lawsuit argues {that a} state legislation enacted this 12 months, below which votes might be challenged if a voter is registered at a nonresidential deal with, may affect folks dwelling in nursing properties, assisted dwelling communities, and comparable amenities.
What’s unclear, as my colleague Michael Mechanic not too long ago wrote, is whether or not Georgia will depend Carter’s poll ought to he go away earlier than Election Day. What is obvious, throughout the CNN interview, is how essential Carter finds his proper to vote, and the Voting Rights Act incapacity protections that allow him to take action.
“He has achieved that perpetually,” his grandson stated, “and is happy to maintain doing it.”
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