Provisional Ballot Counts Vary by State
Friday March 18, 2005 2:48pm from our sister station WJLA-TV
http://www.wjla.com/headlines/0305/214438.html
Washington (AP) - Two-thirds of the more than 1.6 million provisional ballots cast in last year's presidential election were counted, but there were wide differences from state to state. Alaska counted 97 percent of its provisional votes, Delaware just 6 percent.
The figures are from a study by electionline.org, a nonpartisan clearinghouse for election reform information. It is the most comprehensive look yet at how states implemented the major change to grow out of the 2000 presidential vote in Florida, when administrative errors and voter registration database problems kept thousands of eligible voters from casting ballots.
In the 43 states where data were available, provisional votes accounted for just over 1 percent of the total votes counted. In Alaska, 7.2 percent of all the votes counted came from provisional ballots, the highest of any state.
A law enacted by Congress in 2002 required all states to adopt procedures to allow people whose names are not on voter lists but who believe they are registered to cast ballots that can be checked later to verify their eligibility. The law left it up to states to implement the provisional voting rules.
The most significant difference among state rules for counting provisional ballots is the requirement over where they must be cast. Twenty-eight states count such ballots only if they are cast in the voter's correct precinct, while 18 count them if they are in the correct county or township. Four states are not required to offer provisional ballots because they permit voters to register on Election Day, and one - North Dakota - does not require registration.
The electionline.org study included data from 43 states and the District of Columbia. Missing were Mississippi, New York and New Jersey, which have not reported the number of provisional ballots cast and counted, and the five states that do not have provisional voting.
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