Some voters will need alternate ballot

Voters who are not currently on voter registration rolls in their districts may still be able to vote, thanks to a new measure known as provisional ballots.

Legislated in 2002 by the Help America Vote Act, provisional ballots could enfranchise those who believe they are registered voters and eligible to vote, but who otherwise would not be allowed to vote because their names are not on the roll or they forgot to bring appropriate identification.

If voters at the polls find their names are not on the list or they are challenged by an election official, they may ask to file a provisional ballot that will be opened, verified and counted later. They must also sign a written affidavit in front of election officials stating that they believe themselves to be registered and eligible to vote.

"If they're at the correct polling place and are not in the book, they can file these provisional ballots, and we can check them afterwards off the records in our computer," said Bob Lee, the voter registration administrator for the City Commissioners Office.

Lee warned that, if voters never sent in a registration form, their names will not be in the computer and their provisional ballots will not be counted.

"Every form we get goes into an eligible or rejected file, so your name is there, even if you're rejected," Lee said. "We can automatically check if their name or birthdate matches, but if it doesn't, we do manual on-screen lookups by address."

Each of the city's 1,681 polling places will have around 40 provisional ballots available in case they are needed.

Though this is the first presidential election to use provisional ballots, the system has been used before in other elections, and has already generated lawsuits in key battleground states.

The lawsuits sought to loosen rules surrounding provisional balloting, allowing votes to be counted even if filed in the wrong precinct. One such decision was overturned in October by the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

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