Capacity to Understand Voting

This bill will change and update part of the law in Virginia about people  voting who a court has decided are “mentally incapacitated.”

• Mentally incapacitated: an adult who has been found by a court to not be able to think through or respond to other people or events enough to get what they need and to manage money.

• If this bill passes:

  • Someone who works for the court called a “clerk,” will give a list of names of the people who have recently been decided to be mentally incapacitated to the department of elections.

    • Department of elections: the state office in charge of voting and elections.

    • This list will include a lot of information about the people, including where they live.

  • Having “poor judgement” will not be enough of a reason for someone to be called mentally incapacitated.

  • People who take care of people who have been called mentally incapacitated (called guardians) will have to share with the court whether they think the person they take care of can understand voting or not.

    • Guardians will be able to get paperwork about the person they take care of that can help them figure out if the person understands voting, for free.

  • Court paperwork about the decision that someone is incompetent will include whether the court thinks they are able to vote.

  • When the court meets with the guardian to see how they are doing at their job, they have to check in about whether the person now understands voting.

    • If the guardian says the person they care for is not able to vote, they have to have clear proof to show the court.

  • No one will be unable to vote just because of a lack of capacity according to the Virginia Constitution. 

    • Unless a court finds strong proof that the person can’t understand the act of voting.  

  • When figuring out if someone cannot vote, the court won’t consider the results of or failure to complete any reading, writing, or school tests, or tests on whether the person is good.

    • Tests that have medical information will be allowed.  

  • Anyone who was told they cannot vote because a court decided they are unable to before July 1, 2026, can ask the court that made the decision to rethink that decision

    • If someone who was told they are not able to vote hasn’t asked the court to rethink this choice, their next regular court meeting will include the court looking at this decision.

Position Statement:

New Disabled South supports the proposed  changes in the bill because they may allow more disabled people who have a guardian to vote in Virginia.