Protect Voting Rights for Nursing Home Residents

The Trump Administration just updated guidance on voting in nursing homes in a way that could make it harder for 2 million long-term care residents to vote. 

The new guidance replaces suggestions on helping nursing home residents vote, like providing transportation to the polls, with fraud-focused language threatening staff with criminal prosecution for "inappropriate coercion" or other violations of residents' rights.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Alex Padilla are warning this change could intimidate staff and discourage them from helping residents vote.

Nursing-home residents already face many challenges to voting, including limited mobility, transportation challenges, and the need for help requesting or filling out ballots. We can't let Trump put one more obstacle between eligible voters and the ballot box.

Tell Congress to protect voting rights for nursing home residents and restore voter access protections for long-term care residents.  

The Trump administration says the new guidance is to prevent voter fraud despite the fact that voter fraud is extremely rare. The real risk is that eligible voters will lose access to the help they need to vote.

This is how voter suppression works: not through an outright ban, but by making the process harder, scarier, and more confusing for people who already face barriers.

Nursing-home residents have the same right to vote as everyone else. Congress must make clear that long-term care facilities should help eligible residents access the ballot.

Add your name now and demand Congress protect voting rights for nursing-home residents.

The petition to Congress reads: "Investigate the Trump administration's changes to nursing-home voting guidance, restore clear voter-access protections for long-term care residents, and ensure every eligible resident can register, request a ballot, and vote without intimidation, coercion, or obstruction."