Posted on 11/03/2004 6:10:05 AM PST by OESY
...A measure to protect voters' rights -- passed by Congress to prevent a repeat of the 2000 voting debacles -- gives voters a place to turn if they have complaints about the way polling went yesterday or want to know whether their "provisional" ballots were actually counted . At the same time, some partisan and nonpartisan groups are urging voters to stay involved in the election process in the days ahead.
The new procedures don't hinge on whether overall election results are in doubt. Indeed, despite glitches and problems here and there, the overall litany of problems wasn't as long or as bad as many feared. But win or lose, some Americans will undoubtedly have questions about election-day procedures in a year of heightened concerns over everything from electronic voting machines to aggressive registration and heavy early voting.
The Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in 2002, required states to give voters forums to air grievances or ask questions.
The law also required states to implement provisional voting, a form of balloting designed to let people vote whose names don't appear on the rolls. People fill out a ballot, which then is set aside for an election judge to examine, making sure the voter's omission from the roster was simply a mistake and not a sign of ineligibility....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
• www.eac.gov -- The official site of the eight-month-old Election Assistance Commission. Its home page has links to individual states, where voters can file complaints.
• www.justvote.org -- Has telephone numbers for state elections boards.
• www.nass.org -- The National Association of Secretaries of State plans to have a hot button on its site today to connect voters with complaint forms. It also has an extensive section on provisional voting.
• www.electionline.org -- A site that looks into the details of the Help America Vote Act and examines election reform.
• moritzlaw.osu.edu -- Has an election-law button that breaks down state-by-state requirements.
They should do it with absentee ballots, too. I'm always curious as to whether mine makes it in and gets counted accurately.
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