“At their best, provisional ballots provide voters who would otherwise be turned away from the polls to have their vote counted, but at their worst, the offer of a provisional ballot can be “a way to brush off troublesome voters by letting them think they have voted.”[4] In the 2004 US Presidential Election, controversy arose out of arguments regarding the interpretation of the criteria for determining the eligibility of voters using provisional ballots. Many allege that these discrepancies of interpretations, particularly in Ohio, may have been a deciding factor in the outcome of the election. In the 2004 election, at least 1.9 million provisional ballots were cast, and 676,000 were never counted due to various states’ rules on counting provisional ballots.[5]
Studies of the use of provisional ballots in the 2006 general election in the United States show that around 21% of provisional ballots were rejected, where the majority of rejected ballots were cast by registered voters and the majority of rejections were for reasons that were preventable”
| — | Preventable? You mean like NOT spelling my last name (LeFevre) with an S (SeFevre?). WTF. I was made to vote provisionally, which is comparable to when you were in elementary school and your class would vote on the Presidential elections. It’s all for shits and giggles. I felt so dirty after submitting my provisional ballot I went home (across the street) and found documentation w/ the misspelling and went back to the polling station to try and get my provisional ballot removed so i could vote properly. I thought my plea of “This is the most important election of my life, I want this to count!” would help. Sadly it fell on deaf ears. Lesson learned: when you register to vote be as neat as possible with your handwriting. OR Stick with NY…because this kind of snafu never happened there. Stupid California. (at least the weather was nice)
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