TY - JOUR T1 - Voting by People with Mental Illness JF - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online JO - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law SP - 513 LP - 520 DO - 10.29158/JAAPL.003780-18 VL - 46 IS - 4 AU - Jennifer A. Okwerekwu AU - James B. McKenzie AU - Katherine A. Yates AU - Renee M. Sorrentino AU - Susan Hatters Friedman Y1 - 2018/12/01 UR - http://jaapl.org/content/46/4/513.abstract N2 - While voting laws trend toward universal suffrage, there are still some who encounter barriers in exercising the right to vote. Citizens with mental illness or cognitive and emotional impairments are especially vulnerable to exclusion from the political process, contributing to disenfranchisement. Facilitating the process for hospitalized patients to vote can increase their agency and amplify their voices and concerns. Through exercising their civic responsibility, psychiatric patients can have a hand in shaping a community in which they feel valued. In this article we will review the literature about voting, the current voting laws, and our lessons learned facilitating voting by proxy at Cambridge Hospital in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, as well as the obstacles encountered. We will also propose methods to improve implementation of voting by hospitalized psychiatric patients for upcoming elections. ER -