In 2008 my wife was able to vote by taking a marked up sample ballot into the voting booth. She would have no idea what to do this year so was not able to vote in the primary earlier this year or today. It would be obvious that I was really voting twice if I helped her.
My husband filled in his choices on a newspaper ballot and took that with him. The poll workers were nice enough to let me help him fill in the circles on the actual ballot. Although I feel he is clear on his choices at this point, I suppose it is walking a thin line to help in this way. Next time, if he wants to vote, we will send for an absentee ballot and that way he can fill it out or not on his own without the pressure of being in a crowded polling place.
We voted today. I told the poll workers he had memory problems, but was still competent to vote. I asked if they would let me into the booth to help him understand the machine and they said if he asks you to help I could. After several prompts outside the booth which weren't working he finally said yes and I entered the booth to instruct him how to vote for his candidates and how to make sure his vote was counted. We both voted successfully and were happy we did. Next year it's voting by absentee ballot.
Up through the last Presidential elecion my DH voted with assistance pretty well.. We each got absentee ballots. I would read the position and choices. He'd tell me who he wanted. I'd tell him the number of the box to punch and he did it himself. Positions he had no interest in he skipped. The Obama election we had switched to color the ovals ballots, but we handled it basically the same. Since then he's lost interest and I don't push it because the very last time he voted (local election) he had a lot of trouble even co.oring the ovals. Election Poll workers can allow help or provide help to voters under specified guidelines. The help he neeed would have violated the privacy of his vote due to the amount of instruction needed. Absentee is the way to gofor this as it eliminates the pressure to perform, dealing with crowds, bad weather, and time constraints. Once we were done voting it was just a matter of paking up our ballots in the envelopes, signing and stamping them, and me notating had I had helped him, then pop them in the mail.
We went over the choices on the sample ballot yesterday. I still must sign the paperwork allowing me to assist, because there's no possibility Jeff could comprehend the computer screen used in our precinct. So, in effect, he voted yesterday and I inputted his choices today. To bystanders it may have appeared that I was voting twice.
My wife is years past being able to vote... for a while she did use absentee ballots but even that would be disingenuous now. She clearly has no idea what is going on. It makes me sad... we used to relish this civic duty together.
My DH & I voted early (last week). I was allowed to help him, but I had to sign the paper. The poll workers were more than happy to let me help him. He knew a few of the candidates, but he voted all catagories. Next time he probably won't vote.