US: Doctors, medical students organise mass campaign to register patients to vote

As the US presidential election draws near, doctors and medical students across the country are pushing to register patients to vote. According to an Associated Press report, hospitals, doctors and healthcare institutions across the United States are committing to engage citizens in the election process as part of Civil Health Month.

As per reports, from Arizona, Kansas, Missouri to Wisconsin and Carolina, over 60 institutions along with individual physicians are participating in the campaign that kicked off on August 1. 

Benjamin Ruxin, a Stanford University graduate student who heads the campaign, told the news agency that COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of ensuring everyone can vote and help shape healthcare policy for the challenging times ahead.

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Ruxin pointed out that the voter registration rates are down almost 70 percent in some states this election because the traditional ways of registering voters have been curtailed by the pandemic. As per reports, several medical students and doctors have launched various campaigns to get ballots into the hands of patents.

Alister Martin, who is an emergency doctor and the founder of 'VotER', is reported to have said that he founded the organisation in a bid to provide medical professionals with voter registration resources after years of seeing patients struggling from social ills. He added that the health care systems have to get patients involved in the political process. 

Another effort called 'Med Out the Vote' is also focused on getting medical students registered to vote and encouraging them to organise voter registration efforts on campus. 

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Civic engagement of patients is 'crucial' 

Kelly Wong, a medical student, founded 'Patient Voting' in a bid to get doctors and hospital staff to commit to helping patients request, cast, and submit emergency ballots when the time comes. While speaking to Associated Press, Wong said that newer political professionals see ‘civic engagement’ as a crucial part of treating the ‘whole patient’.

While the University of North Carolina is reported to have registered over 500 new voters and orders mail ballots, Harvard and Yale's students are also planning to contest to see which of the Ivy League school can register most voters.

Meanwhile, a medical student in Rhode Island reportedly launches an effort to get emergency ballots into the hand of patients who find themselves unexpectedly in the hospitals around the election day. 

(Inputs/Image - AP) 

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