Counting of 2004 Provisional Ballots Varied Widely, Study Finds

[Rose Siding]

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 information. It is the most comprehensive look yet at how states carried out 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 figures 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. Provisional voting "was a success in many ways in terms of what happened in 2000 when people were turned away and had no fail-safe way of voting," said Elizabeth Schneider, one of the authors of the study.

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/20/politics/20ballot.html

[geomon666]

1. Really

Provisional voting "was a success in many ways in terms of what happened in 2000 when people were turned away and had no fail-safe way of voting," said Elizabeth Schneider, one of the authors of the study.

As opposed to those who voted on a provisional ballot but were in the wrong polling place because the gestapo had told them to vote across the street thus their vote was immediately thrown out. Ain't America grand?