Counties brace for provisional voting drama
New system is designed to avoid fraud and fiascoes like Florida's from election in 2000
By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle  29 October 2004

Next week, a new system for handling possibly ineligible ballots will be used for the first time in Harris County during a presidential election.
Under the old system, people who showed up to vote but whose names didn't show up on voter rolls often were allowed to cast ballots that were counted after they filled out affidavits.

But many such votes are not expected to be counted Tuesday as the county clerk's office implements a new system. Ballots cast by those whose registrations can't be tracked down will not be tallied.

"This system is better at preventing voter fraud," said Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman. "It is more conservative than the old voter-challenge system."

The new system is required by the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress to help avoid the voting debacles that occurred in Florida during the last presidential election.

Before its passage, states and sometimes counties had different ways of handling people whose names weren't listed on voter rolls but who insisted that they were registered.

Under the federal act, such voters will be given provisional ballots, but their votes won't be counted until election officials verify the voters' registrations.

In Texas, provisional ballots will be counted only if voters cast them at the correct polling place.

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, who oversees voter registration, said the new system has the advantage of nationwide uniformity and can prevent fraudulent voting.

"I much prefer the new system," he said.

Provisional ballots will be cast on the county's eSlate machines. These ballots will not be counted until the county's provisional voter balloting board, composed equally of Republicans and Democrats, finds that those who cast them were registered.

Provisional process
The county elections board appoints the provisional balloting board, which will have about 30 members.

A poll worker will issue such voters an access code that causes the eSlate machines to file the ballot as provisional, said David Beirne, spokesman for the county clerk's office.

These voters also will be given a printed sheet notifying them in English, Spanish and Vietnamese that they are casting a provisional ballot.

They also will sign an affidavit saying that they are registered and acknowledge they are casting a provisional ballot.

Voters place a printed retrieval access code in a sealed envelope.

Election workers later will use it to access the eSlate system and inform the system whether a specific provisional ballot should be counted or discarded.

Bettencourt anticipates that 2,000 to 3,000 provisional ballots will be cast. During early voting, 274 have been cast.

Three days and counting
After the election, a team from Bettencourt's office will take three days to try to track down whether those who cast provisional ballots had really registered and were not showing up on voter rolls through no fault of their own.

Sometimes names are wrongly d from voter rolls or the tax collector's office mistypes an address and sends a voter registration card to the wrong home, Bettencourt said.

Occasionally, the names of those who registered while renewing a driver's license don't show up. Bettencourt's office has access to Department of Public Safety databases.

Some voters believe that they remain registered if they move from one Texas county to another, Bettencourt said. Voters must register anew when they leave a county. Such provisional ballots will not be counted, Beirne said.

After considering the recommendations of Bettencourt's team, the provisional balloting board will decide which will be counted.

Workers from the county clerk's office will take provisional voters' retrieval access codes out of sealed envelopes, punch in the numbers and indicate whether a ballot should be counted. Those punching in the codes cannot call up the provisional ballots to see how a person voted, Beirne said.

The system was designed so Bettencourt's team and provisional voting board members cannot know how a person is voting when they are considering whether to accept or reject a ballot, Bettencourt said.

The process should be over by Nov. 9, a week after the election, Beirne said.

Potential for drama
Elections that are extremely close Nov. 2 will not be decided until then.

"There is potential for a little more drama," Bettencourt said.

Voters will be notified by mail whether provisional ballots were counted or rejected.

Provisional ballots were used during the primaries in the spring, and 27 percent of the ballots were counted, Bettencourt said.

In Fort Bend County, provisional ballots will be placed in sealed envelopes, said county Elections Administrator Steve Raborn.

A team will research whether voters were actually registered. If they were, the envelopes will be unsealed and ballots will be counted.

In Montgomery County, about 100 provisional ballots were cast during early voting, said county Elections Administrator Carol Gaultney. She expects more than 800 such ballots to be cast by the time polls close Tuesday.

Some of those who registered to vote just before Oct. 4, the cutoff for this election, sent their cards in on time, but mailed them to the secretary of state's office or Harris County, she said. About 100 such registrations arrive daily in Montgomery County.

These voters are not on the roll, but they will be allowed to cast regular ballots, not provisional ballots, as long as her office receives the registration cards, Gaultney said.