Electionland initiative<\/a>. Up to and on Election Day, ProPublica and a coalition of news organizations that includes WNYC, Univision, Google News Lab, the USA Today Network and a team of more than 300 reporters across the country will be reporting on concerns like long lines, misapplication of voter ID laws, and problems with provisional ballots.<\/p>\nWhat happens to your provisional ballot depends on where you live<\/h3>\n
Arizona, along with 21 other states, will reject your entire provisional ballot if you cast it in the wrong location. Another 17 states will partially reject it, typically keeping votes cast for statewide and federal offices. In 10 states and Washington D.C., voters can register on Election Day, and in North Dakota you aren\u2019t required to register at all.<\/p>\n
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\nProvisional ballots can be indicators of deeper voting issues \u2014 or not, said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU\u2019s Voting Rights Project. When unusually large numbers are cast somewhere, it can be a sign that the state hasn\u2019t properly updated voter rolls, or that they\u2019ve done a poor job communicating with voters about ID requirements or polling locations. But it can also indicate a state is just trying extra hard to let people vote. Similarly, states that reject high numbers of provisional ballots may have rules that are overly strict \u2014 or just be good at detecting ineligible voters.<\/p>\n
Prompted by the 2000 election, when thousands of would-be voters were turned away in Florida, federal legislators passed a bill mandating that all states offer provisional voting except for the handful that already offered same-day registration. But the law set few guidelines on how to count provisional ballots, or under what circumstances they can be tossed out; there remain substantial differences in how provisional ballots are treated state-to-state \u2014 and even county-to-county.<\/p>\n
Voters cast provisional ballot for lots of reasons. In almost all states with voter ID laws, for example, people without appropriate identification can vote provisionally; their ballots are supposed to count as long as they return to specified locations with proof of who they are.<\/p>\n
In the 2012 election, some 2.7 million voters cast provisional ballots, about a quarter of which were disallowed. According to the Election Administration Commission, the top reasons provisional ballots are rejected nationwide are that voters aren\u2019t registered (38 percent) or vote at the wrong site (25 percent).<\/p>\n
But the likelihood that a ballot gets tossed for a particular reason can vary sharply from state to state: In Texas, 15 percent of provisional ballots were rejected for being cast in the incorrect place; in Ohio, it was 28 percent; in Indiana, it was 45 percent.<\/p>\n
Only some provisional ballots are counted<\/h3>\n
Election officials in Maricopa County list 16 reasons voters cast a provisional ballot during August primary. Some are unacceptable under Arizona law and led to a discarded ballot. Here are the number of provisional ballots cast during that primary, why, and whether they were counted:<\/p>\n
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\nExperts say some states likely do a poor job of informing voters where they\u2019re supposed to vote \u2014 and that casting provisional ballot in the wrong place is likely futile. Poll workers routinely get only a few hours of training and may not know the consequences of voting in the wrong spot, or may not express those consequences to voters.<\/p>\n
Voters themselves sometimes refuse to listen when poll workers try to tell them where to go and what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany voters will just say, \u2018No, I want to vote,\u2019\u201d said Tammy Patrick, a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center (and an Electionland advisor). Patrick, who served on a 2014 presidential commission to modernize voting and address problems, also said she\u2019s seen party officials, lawyers and others stop voters from leaving polling places and demand that they ask for provisional ballots.<\/p>\n
Fifteen states, including California, count portions of provisional ballots cast in the wrong precincts or jurisdictions, accepting votes for candidates for statewide or federal offices that could have been cast anywhere or that apply to wherever a voter is registered.<\/p>\n
Arizona, however, is one of 22 states that take a harder line, rejecting such ballots entirely. The Arizona Democratic Party has sued the state over this, as well as having what the plaintiffs say are an inadequate number of polling places.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are individuals who took the time to register to vote, went to the polls on election day, presented the sufficient ID to vote, and yet their ballot was thrown out completely because they went to the wrong precinct,\u201d said Spencer Scharff, voter protection director for the Arizona Democratic Party. \u201cTo throw out a ballot when a voter is eligible to vote for the majority of the things on the ballot is disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Maricopa County, complaints came in from both parties after the August primary about poll workers not informing voters that provisional ballots cast in the wrong location almost certainly would not count, Bartholomew said.<\/p>\n
Melita Towler was left confused by the process. She\u2019d cast a provisional ballot at the polling place nearest to where she was on primary day and said no one told she needed to vote in the precinct where she was registered. She was surprised to learn that her ballot hadn\u2019t been counted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they had just said that to me, I would have gone somewhere else,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m glad I found this out before the election in November.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result of the complaints, Bartholomew said, the county changed its policy for the November presidential election. \u201cNow, we are training our poll workers to let them know that if you are in the wrong polling place your vote will not count,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Maricopa County will also place signs reflecting this outside of precincts and near the roll book table, and has ramped up voter education stressing that the law requires voters to vote in the correct precinct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been in state law for many years, so every single election we try to make sure that these issues get smaller and smaller,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that number will continue to decrease and voters will go to the correct polling place.\u201d<\/p>\n
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