Posted on 02/22/2005 9:38:14 PM PST by SmithL
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A large voter turnout and poll workers' confusion contributed to the invalidation of many provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election, the president of the League of Women Voters said Tuesday.
In Ohio, 21 percent of provisional ballots were found to be invalid, compared with 13 percent statewide in the 2000 presidential election.
Nationally, 32 percent of provisional ballots cast in last year's election were thrown out. Most states were using them for the first time.
Last year, 5.7 million Ohioans voted, compared with 4.8 million in the 2000 election. Ohio was pivotal in the 2004 election. President Bush won the state by 118,000 votes, giving him the 270 electoral votes needed for re-election.
Provisional ballots are used when poll workers cannot immediately confirm if a voter is properly registered.
County boards of elections and poll workers had to wait until nine days before the election for a federal court to rule on a challenge to Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's directive that provisional ballots would be valid only if voters cast them in the precinct where they lived.
Democrats claimed the order by Blackwell, a Republican, was too restrictive and could unfairly limit Democratic votes. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Blackwell's favor.
"We had so many new registrants and the elections officials were overwhelmed in many cases trying to keep up with all those registrations," said Kay Maxwell, the league's president. "We knew we were going to have the potential for a lot more people not being on the registration list who technically should have been and therefore need to cast provisional ballots."
Maxwell was among the witnesses scheduled to testify in Columbus Wednesday before the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, created by Congress after the 2000 election. The commission planned its first hearing since the 2004 election to study the impact of provisional voting.
I wonder how long it will be 'til "Rev." Al and Jesse show up.
Don't know how Ohio is now but in Oklahoma the League of Women Voters is totally Dem!
I'll bet that voters that are too stupid to use a ballot created even more invalid ballots.
So there were far fewer spoiled provisional ballots in Ohio than the national average.
I didn't see the actual number of provisional ballots posted in the article.
Let me guess. Statewide, there were 118,000 spoiled provisional ballots, and they ALL went to Kerry.
There is a difference with provisional ballots vs. regular voting.
The confusion lies within the minds of the election officials, not the voters.
Must be the products of a public school education.
LOL!!!
The Dems burn themselves with keeping their voters trapped in the government no-education indoctration centers.
yeah -and the dems used this as an excuse not to sent the military absentee ballots out until then = making it impossible for them to get back on time - and then refused to wait beyond the deadline for them - so - has anyone checked to see how many military ballots didn't get counted?
"County boards of elections and poll workers had to wait until nine days before the election for a federal court to rule on a challenge to Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's directive that provisional ballots would be valid only if voters cast them in the precinct where they lived.
Democrats claimed the order by Blackwell, a Republican, was too restrictive and could unfairly limit Democratic votes. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Blackwell's favor."
Notice how requiring voters to cast their votes in the precinct where they live would "unfairly limit Democratic votes." Do Democrats realize how they insult their own voters? This implies that Democrat voters are too stupid to know where they live.
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