I'm affraid I have to say no. They can be way too easy influneced by evil people(and there are quite a lot of them in this world) to vote for one of those governments that aren't "nice". And that could affect everyone in their country. Seriously...not cool.
Sure I sound heartless and cold but the things I wrote above could come true and....well....better not to think about it.(knocks on wood)

I think I will probably go with the idea most of you guys have. Not everyone who is mentally ill or disabled is afflicted badly enough to not understand the voting system, but that would probably be the minority of overall cases. It's sad because it takes away one of their basic human rights, the freedom of speech, but in most cases it's probably for the best, as any person who tries to unfairly influence anyone's vote is violating that person's human rights anyway.

My brother is Autistic, and I don't think he'll ever be in a position to vote. He is very clever when it comes to computers and maths, and yet he can barely dress himself. He has trouble even understanding my mum's rules, never mind politics. However many disorders have a "spectrum" of affliction, and some people may only border on that spectrum, and probably function quite highly. Autism alone has such a wide spectrum that there are certainly going to be some Autistic people who can think quite freely. Though as I said before, they are usually in the minority.

I like the idea of an aptitude test, because it would at least give someone a chance to prove they are of sound enough mind to understand politics and vote, but yeah I really can't say for sure, there's no clear answer on this one.

I guess it depends on the intensity of there mental illness. If they are capable to understand what they want from our government and find a candidate that they like y not. THere are diff levels of retardation. It depends on each individual case.

MAn What an intresting topic but instead of saying yes or no I gotta just go for the general statement here you know?

First off... If wego by masses in general we have ppl who will absolutely vote against Obama because he is a black man we have ppl who absolutely vote against Hilary because of the fact she is a white woman.

My friend told me the other day While I was at scholl pls no one here even take this the wrong way this is just what she said. Most of her latino family WILL absolutely not vote on Obama because most Latinos do not like black ppl anyways.

The fact of the matter is Biased is Biased. Alot of ppl will look for anything to NOT vote for someone and those ppl who are the undecided voters are very easily swayed just as much as mentally disabled ppl.

The thing is I can sway my friend to vote for huckabee one minute and I probably can get him to vote Obama the next. If we go by the world in general, is letting a mentally handicapped person vote any worse then letting any regular person who is easily swayed or convinced vote. Most of the world don't research candidates. Why? Who knows. the fact is that in the U.S ignorant ppl are everywhere and they will vote for one thing or another just based off of one stupid thing.

Ex. Hilary won New York. Who DIDN'T see that one comming? same with Obama and Illinois. *thinks it's Illinois correct me if I'm wrong pls*

Having someone who is racist vote is stupid. Having some undecided voter vote is also stupid. If we go by generality Alot of ppl shouldn't be voting anyways. In the defense over mentally Disabled they should be counted as regular voters in a way and non regular voters in another way. The non regular is obvious and the regular is simply due to the fact that other redneckish KKK ppl will vote hilary and "Gangsta's" up in the hood will vote Obama becausse of the fact he is black. 88% speaks you know. Or how married woman who love lawyer ish shows that try and help kids will vote for Hilary since she was a Lawyer who helped children.

Either way letting someone mentally disabled vote is just like letting an extremely Biased person vote. Not very many ppl look at the issue's anyways. All you gotta do is say to the press Hilary Clinton is a Lesbian who does drugs *obviously not a lie and a stupid statement* and that one statement could make ppl NOT vote for her.

Everyone freaks out over things that ARE not in the true sense of politics I mean wtf how is her being a lesbian gonna make the world worse off than what it is that has nothing to do with it *unless your against Gay's and Lesbians*

But I guess that's politics.

On to the main topic well I guess you already know I am voting undecided to me it seems pointless and in a way it's singling out a group of ppl for the way they were born. Yet, we would need to single more ppl out in this catagory anyways since some ppl don't understand enough as it is. Sad to say it myself, it contradicts what I believe in. I am all about Human rights in the U.S but I guess it can't be helped... To have a good politics system where all votes were counted as equal because the ppl understood them all I can say is.

*Segregation anyone?*

Actually, about 90% of all people classified as Mentally Retarded only have a mild case. It might not be as noticable because you might not even realize that those people are retarded in any way. They might just appear to be someone with a very low IQ.

Only about 1-2% of people diagnosed with MR are profoundly retarded and about 3-4% are severly.

That's pretty much the point I was trying to pull.

Althought there is really no way to avoid that issue *If I had my way the ppl who made stupid decisions making votes wouldn't be voting* It really doesn't matter everyone has the right to vote and convincing others is what the candidates are supposed to be doing.

When someone just votes it can make our lives that much harder when the winning vote happens to be the vote we didn't want.

But on a daily basis it's not like this doesn't happen regularly like the guy that cuts you off on the freeway or the little screaming child in a restuarant.

Our lives are dictated by stupid ppl making stupid choices that's why we have laws