A voter drops off her ballot at a drop box in Arizona.Matt York/AP

When Becky King’s daughter Beth Papp turned 18, she couldn’t register to vote in her home state of Arizona. Five years later, she still can’t.

Papp is autistic and nonspeaking; when she was in her teenage years, King was advised that placing her daughter under full legal guardianship, a process she applied for when Papp was 17, was the right thing to do. Various frameworks for guardianship, or conservatorship, exist in all 50 states—in all cases stripping both minors and adults of a variety of rights then granted to a third party.

“Nobody told me specifically what the implications would be,” King said. “It didn’t even occur to me that anything else would be an option.”

King was far from the only parent to receive such guidance. Sey In, a staff attorney for Disability Rights Arizona, calls it the “school to guardianship” pipeline.

“Many schools are telling parents that guardianship is the only option,” In told Mother Jones. “Parents aren’t really apprised of other alternatives, like a power of attorney arrangement.”

In Arizona, people under full guardianship are unable to vote—regardless of their age or their specific condition.

In Arizona, a contentious swing state, people placed under full or plenary guardianships are unable to participate in a central part of democracy—casting a vote—regardless of their age or the specifics of their condition. That can include people with intellectual disabilities like autism, as well as those with mental health conditions like bipolar disorder. As is typical with........

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