Voter Rights
Provisional Balloting Ensures Every Voter's Vote is Counted
It is expected that between 1.5 million and 3 million voters could not cast a ballot in the 2000 presidential election because of registration problems. As a result, when Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, it included a "provisional ballot" requirement to protect these voters. States and localities must have implemented the provision by the 2004 elections, and must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to vote, even if their eligibility is in question. The voter's eligibility may be reviewed later and the vote stricken if the person is found ineligible, but no one should be denied the right to cast their vote and to expect that it will be fairly treated. Many say that it is the single most important way to ensure that every eligible voter who goes to the polls on Election Day will be able to cast a vote and have their vote counted.
It is easy to imagine that the outcome of the 2004 presidential election will be determined in a swing state by the counting of provisional ballots. Yet if that state does not have uniform standards and procedures for providing, handling and counting provisional ballots established before the election, there could be significant problems. Citizens will want to know how many provisional ballots were issued and what the standards and processes will be for counting such ballots in a fair and uniform way.
We urge citizens and the media to use these guidelines from the League of Women Voters and keep watch over the election process to ensure that the new law is fully and fairly implemented as new procedures are established. States have important choices to make, and these choices will have a significant impact on how effective this protection proves to be. Here is a helpful set of questions for local advocates to ask their election officials regarding the use and counting of provisional ballots.
Sample questions for election officials:
- How will you establish standards for counting provisional ballots?
- How will those standards ensure that all eligible voters will have their votes counted?
- What will be done to ensure that the law is applied uniformly across the state?
- How will you ensure transparency in the providing and counting of provisional ballots
- What will be done to address registration and eligibility questions ahead of time to reduce the need for provisional ballots
- What system is being put in place to train poll workers on the provisional ballot requirement?
- How will you educate voters about this new requirement and their right to ask for a provisional ballot?
- If the voter does not have a proper ID, what steps will you take to provide a provisional ballot and to count the ballot if the person is eligible to vote?
- How will voters verify whether or not their vote was counted?
- What are you doing to guarantee that voters who had to vote provisionally once will not face the same situation the next time they vote?