Voting While Hospitalized: Should We Make It Easier?

Nov. 08--Rujean Mitinger has been voting religiously since she turned 21 -- 60 years ago. She didn't want to let the hip she broke on Friday stand between her and voting for the first female candidate for president. She was lucky her son, Ed, was willing to drive all day to make that possible.

By mid-afternoon, she sat in her wheelchair in a rehabilitation wing of Cathedral Village in Upper Roxborough and smiled as she held her absentee ballot and prepared to vote straight Democratic. She usually splits the ticket, but not this time.

Mitinger, who lives in Chestnut Hill, fell while working -- yes, she still works -- and got a total hip replacement. She said she was "pleased" to be able to vote for a woman and to think that her three granddaughters "will have the opportunity to be president."

She classified herself as an "enthusiastic" Clinton voter. "I think Hillary has had the experience and so forth and that's why I'm more enthusiastic for her. Yes, she's done some wrong things, but I don't think they should affect her future."

She had no kind words for Trump. "I think he's been rude and crude and unacceptable to represent our country abroad as well as in the states," she said. "The thought that he would be in Europe representing us scares me."

Ed, who lives in South Philly and also voted Democratic, printed out paperwork over the weekend for his mother, who can't get in a car yet, to get an emergency ballot. He went to the city Board of Elections Monday morning and was told he needed yet another form filled out that wasn't available online. So, he went back to Cathedral Village for his mother's signature, then drove again to City Hall, got the approval he needed and drove back to Cathedral Village. After she finished the paperwork around 3:30 p.m., he had to carry it back to City Hall.

Ed, who had the day off, considered it all a "little adventure," but also thought it should not be so hard for people with emergency medical problems to cast a vote.

"It's not an easy thing to do," he said. "I think that somehow, some way, it should be easier for people who are in hospitals, emergency situations."

He's not the only one who thinks so. When a voter is hospitalized, paperwork must be signed by a doctor and notarized, and the patient must designate someone to take the ballot to the county board of elections office. Spokeswomen at Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health and Einstein Medical Center Montgomery said some patients gave up when they found out how much work was involved.

John Barrett, a 67-year-old resident of Montgomery County's Springfield Township, was not one of them. He passed out in his living room Sunday night. Diagnosis: pneumonia. He'd been worrying about the election for months and was hoping he'd get out of Abington in time to vote. Instead, he had to line up a notary.

"I think that it seemed extraordinarily important to vote this year," he said.

His wife got to his room at 10 a.m. Tuesday. She drove to Norristown and back so he could fill out the ballot. Then it was back to Norristown. She called him at 3:30 to say she had officially turned in his vote for Clinton. "Once I get out of here, I'm going to have to take her some place really nice for dinner, flowers for days on end," he said.

Sanober McNellis, a 38-year-old Blue Bell woman whose parents emigrated to the United States from India and became avid voters, arrived at Einstein Monday with a 104- degree fever and a history of significant medical problems. The doctors wanted to put her in the ICU. She knew her 4-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy, was in good hands. "My first thought after that was, 'How do I vote?' "

She filled out the absentee ballot paperwork in the ICU. Her parents did the driving. By Tuesday afternoon, she was in a regular room and feeling better.

"Luckily, I have people who love me and know how important this election is," she said. "You can't complain about anything if you're not going to vote."

She had really wanted to take her daughter to witness her vote for Clinton. Instead, the girl went with her in-laws, who may have voted differently.

"I may not agree with who you vote for," McNellis said, "but I will fight to the death to allow you to get that vote in."

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