It's such a crazy idea that it works.
Doctors at a psychiatric hospital in the battleground state of Pennsylvania are registering patients to vote, the Washington Free Beacon has learned, as are doctors at hospitals across the country.
One reason is that voting is good for your health.
Another reason is to elect Democrats.
The effort is being coordinated by a group called Vot-ER, which, unsurprisingly, is run by “progressives,” that is, official Democratic activists, and was founded by Vice President Kamala Harris' congressional candidate.
Strange Ideas
The Free Beacon reports that the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute at Pennsylvania State University is overcrowded with mentally ill patients who are unable to carry out “activities of daily living,” as well as “patients who are suicidal, aggressive or threatening to harm themselves or others.”
Nevertheless, one of the top priorities for psychiatrists at the Giggle Academy is encouraging their patients to vote.
“The hospital, located in a battleground state that could determine the 2024 election, is asking inpatient psychiatric patients, regardless of their diagnosis, if they'd be interested in a 'voter registration tool' that would allow them to find their nearest polling place and register to vote online,” the website reports.
Patients can also request a mail-in ballot with “assistance” from hospital staff, according to two papers from the project, which began in 2020.
Since then, the hospital has continued to register patients, including those who are not close to being discharged and whose condition is not stable, on the grounds that voting is a “therapeutic tool” that “empowers patients and makes them feel better.”
The facility's top doctor believes “voting is an important part of the recovery process,” but did not respond to questions from the Free Beacon.
As the facility's website describes it:
81.4% of adult inpatient respondents believe voting is essential; 66.4% believe voting fosters community connections, and 55.8% believe voting contributes to the mental health recovery process. This resonant feedback highlights the importance of voting as a therapeutic tool and its role in fostering a sense of community, identity, and purpose.
The website cited the American Medical Association, arguing that voting is a “vital social determinant of health.”
Vote-ER
The psychiatric hospital's efforts are backed by Vot-ER, a nonprofit founded by Harvard Medical School emergency physician Alistair Martin, who is an “advisor” to Harris and “helped run the health equity portfolio in the White House.” Martin sees political activism at patients' bedsides as part of his job.
“Vot-ER has helped more than 50,000 doctors register their patients to vote,” the Free Beacon reported.
The company's flagship product is a badge that health care workers can wear around their necks that has a QR code that accesses an online voter registration platform. Doctors can ask patients if they're registered to vote and, if the answer is no, invite them to scan the badge.
The Free Beacon said Vot-ER is a Democratic Party organization and that doctors use its resources to register patients at a variety of medical facilities, including cancer hospitals and palliative care centers. The website said this also includes registering parents of seriously ill infants to vote.
HHS and AMA Involvement
Major medical institutions are asking their staff to “ask patients if they plan to vote,” and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), whose No. 2 position is held by a man who identifies as a woman, is “encouraging federally funded health centers to offer 'voter registration activities' to 'underserved populations.'”
More from Free Beacon:
The HHS guidance is the result of a 2021 executive order directing all federal agencies to promote “voting access.” According to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner, Vot-ER is advising the Biden-Harris administration on how to implement that order, which appears to be targeting traditional Democratic voting blocs as the presidential election heats up.…
The group has also created scripts that doctors can use to encourage their “undocumented patients” to register their “citizen friends and family” to vote. Vot-ER did not respond to a request for comment.
Vot-ER’s far-left activities also include training on non-existent “medical racism.”
“I once told a patient recovering from an asthma attack to vote because it was the only way to 'clean the smog out of the air,'” Martin said.
Critics speak out
The American Medical Association mistakenly believes that voting is a “vital social determinant of health,” but critics say doctors, particularly at Penn State's psychiatric facility, are getting it wrong.
As the Free Beacon revealed:
One paper noted that “mental illness diagnoses were not excluded” during the institute's voter registration drive, which began in the six weeks leading up to the 2020 election. During that time, roughly one-fifth of the hospital's patients had been involuntarily admitted, and roughly one-quarter had a mental illness. Another paper noted that patients were offered voter registration tools “even if they were not nearing discharge.”
Jane Rosenthal, a psychiatrist at New York University's Tisch Hospital, said patients could be exploited and may not have the capacity to consent.
“These patients often don't have the capacity to make decisions during the early acute stages of their hospital stay,” she told the Free Beacon. “I wonder how ethical it is to pose these questions to such vulnerable people?”
Psychologist Elliot Kaminetsky worries that hospitalized patients “wonder that if they don't register to vote, they'll be seen as disobedient and their stay will be longer.”
The enthusiasm to encourage the mentally ill to vote was so strong that psychiatrists at the University of Pennsylvania's psychiatric hospital argued that “psychiatrists have an 'ethical obligation' to register their patients to vote,” the website reported.
“Psychiatrists may be concerned about being seen as promoting a political or moral agenda,” they write. “We argue that social and political engagement is a natural complement to our expertise.”
H/T: Ace of Spades
To learn more about the John Birch Society’s program to restore election integrity, click here.
