Tokaji (OSU Election Law): Pay Attention to the Provisionals:

[mod mom]

Sunday, March 9
 
Pay Attention to Provisionals
That's one piece of advice I'd give to both election officials and candidates this election season. This lesson emerged during the 2004 election, when the large number of provisional ballots cast in Ohio delayed the decision to call the state -- and thus the presidential race -- for President Bush. In Ohio's 2004 election, provisional ballots amounted to 2.8% of those cast, and an even higher percentage of the state's voters cast provisional ballots in 2006.

A large number of provisional ballots can indicate problems in a state's registration system. Also, to the extent a state relies heavily on provisional ballots, it's likely that some voters will be disenfranchised. Moreover, county-to-county discrepancies in the way provisional ballots are verified can alter the result of a close election -- and possibly lead to equal protection concerns.

To illustrate the impact of provisional ballots, I've been trying to find out the number and percentage of provisional ballots cast in Tuesday's primaries. So far, the Ohio Secretary of State's website doesn't appear to have this information. (As I mentioned Wednesday, it's important that this information be released as soon as possible.)

I have learned that a large number of provisional ballots were cast in Franklin County (Columbus area) on Tuesday. The total reported turnout was 299,688, but I'm told that there are approximately 20,000 additional provisional ballots that have yet to be verified or counted. If that's correct, it means that around 6.25% of Franklin County voters cast a provisional ballot. That's a lot.

-snip
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2008/03/pay-attention-to-provisionals.html