Sec. Davidson: Don't Let Provisional Ballots Become this Election's 'Hanging Chads'
October 8, 2004

We now know that more than 1.5 million votes were lost in the 2000 elections because of clerical errors with registration. In an attempt to prevent this from ever happening again, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires that this year, eligible voters who go to the polls on Election Day not be turned away. Instead, these voters are allowed to fill out a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are intended as “fail safe” voting for those voters whose eligibility to vote is in question for any reason (e.g. their voter registration is in doubt, they have been erroneously purged from the voting rolls, they have problems presenting identification). The idea is to allow people to vote, and verify their eligibility later. This is a crucial reform – but conflicting laws and regulations threaten to make matters even worse for Colorado voters.

HAVA requires that provisional ballots be offered to voters whose eligibility is in question and that the ballot be counted if the voter is eligible to vote. However, Colorado’s arbitrary and inconsistent rules and procedures may mean that some eligible voters will not be allowed to cast a vote, and that others’ votes will not be counted.

• Colorado Secretary of State Davidson refuses to count provisional ballots that are cast in the wrong polling place for any race other than president and vice president. Between redistricting, polling place changes, delayed processing of voter registration forms, and the fact that people may have moved since they last voted, some voters will likely go to the wrong polling place. This is of special concern this year because there will be so many first-time and infrequent voters. Eligible voters who cast provisional ballots should have their votes count for all races in which the voter is qualified to vote.

• Colorado Secretary of State Davidson will not allow voters who requested an absentee ballot to cast a provisional ballot. This means that eligible voters who requested but did not cast an absentee ballot will be denied the right to vote. This is a change from past practice in Colorado. Had this been the law in 2002, at least 13,600 Colorado voters would have been denied the right to vote.

Not counting a valid vote, or not allowing an eligible voter to cast a ballot, violates the fundamental right to vote. If the number of provisional ballots rejected because of these laws is larger than the margin of victory this November, it could mean that election officials – not voters – have decided the election.