Continuing Failures in "Fail-Safe" Voting
A Preliminary Analysis of Provisional Voting Problems
December 7, 2004
By Demos

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In this preliminary analysis, Demos finds that the right to provisional ballots was violated across the country on November 2, 2004. While all the data on provisional balloting have yet to be collected and assessed, available evidence suggests that Congress and the states must revisit provisional ballot statutes, regulations and procedures if the original "failsafe" voting mandate is to be fully realized.

Background

One of the primary complaints that arose after Election 2000 concerned voter registration. Eligible voters in twenty-five states went to the polls only to find that their names had either been improperly purged from the rolls or not added in a timely fashion. Upwards of three million votes were lost or not cast because of problems with the registration process and voting lists. Congress enacted the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) to remedy many of the problems experienced by voters in the 2000 presidential election.

HAVA mandated provisional balloting as a "fail-safe" remedy for eligible voters who might show up at the polls in 2004 and find that their names were missing from the voter rolls. Instead of being sent home empty handed, these voters -- and those first-time voters who could not provide the identification required by the Help America Vote Act -- would be offered a provisional ballot. Election authorities would thereafter check the registry of voters and count provisional votes cast by individuals who had indeed been registered, or whose right to vote was otherwise validated. But Demos' analysis suggests that for many voters, HAVA's "fail-safe" voting provision failed.