Just a suggestion if you live in Wisconsin, or any state that has a public voter registration system on the web:
If you know the first and last name and birth date of a nursing home resident who is obviously incapable of voting, whether a relative or not, in WI you can go to the voter registration site and confirm whether that resident is registered. You can also track their ballot, i.e., whether they’ve requested one, received one, and sent one back.
Obviously, if they’re incompetent (and ruled so, with a guardian appointed), they shouldn’t even be registered, much less receive a ballot and vote it. One of my relatives, for example, while not deemed incompetent, has absolutely no interest in voting nor the knowledge to cast an informed vote any longer. He should not be voting, and would not unless induced to do so by someone. So, I’m keeping an eye on the process. Thinking about it, I suppose I should tell him to revoke his registration since he has no intention of voting.
This would make a good project, actually. It wouldn’t be that hard to get names and birth dates of other residents in your local nursing home, particularly if you’re often visiting a relative. Finding out which ones are in no mental condition to cast a valid vote and tracking their ballots could yield a lot of results. Even better, it could lead to a process where their registrations were revoked permanently, making it even more difficult for someone else to induce them to vote. After all, even a guardian shouldn’t be allowed to cast the vote of an incompetent ward.