Confusion for those voting by provisional ballot

Once you've cast a paper ballot, will your vote count?

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Confusion for those voting by provisional ballot

POSTED: Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 3:40 PM

Many Philadelphians who believed they were registered to vote received a surprise today: Their names weren't in the voting book at their polling place. As a result, they were asked to vote by provisional paper ballot. Committee of Seventy now sees the issue of registered voters being required to vote by provisional ballot as being an even greater concern than voter-ID-related problems at the polls today. They've been getting reports that many voters, recently registered, aren't listed in the poll books, and some voters have left rather than cast a paper ballot.

One question is: Once you've cast a paper provisional ballot, are you done voting? According to the Pennsylvania Voter ID law, voters have to take a follow-up step of affirming their identities within six days if voting by provisional ballot. But today's ballot problems aren't necessarily ID related. A call to the state voting hotline yielded, after 10 minutes on hold, the answer: "I dunno." And the city commissioners' number is coming up busy.

For what it's worth, here's what the state's voting site has to say on the matter:

How Do I Know if My Provisional Ballot Counted?

Within seven days after the election, the County Board of Elections will examine your provisional ballot to determine if it is valid. After this seven-day period, you can find out if your provisional ballot was counted, partially counted or not counted. If your provisional ballot was not counted, you will be told why it was not counted. To learn of your provisional ballot’s status, you may call 1-877-VOTESPA or select voter services.

To receive this information, you will be asked to provide your provisional ballot identification number, which can be found on your provisional ballot identification receipt.

Posted by Samantha Melamed @ 3:40 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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