Pennsylvania: Provisional ballots
NPR's Morning Edition reports: With lots of new voters showing up at the polls for this year s primaries, election officials are also seeing many problems. Some people are going to the wrong polling sites; others can t find their NAMEs on voter registration lists. Still others don t have the proper ID. The fallback for these voters is often something called a provisional ballot. But those votes do not always count.
Cecilia Martinez is executive director of The Reform Institute, a non-profit group that helps operate a national voter assistance hotline, 866-MyVote1. The hotline has received thousands of calls so far this year from voters. Many are trying to find out where they are supposed to go vote. But Martinez says many others have encountered problems.
Oftentimes what happens is when a voter goes to the polls, and they have registered, but they for whatever reason are not listed on the registration rolls, they are supposed to be voting provisional. That s sort of the backup plan, she says. -- Pa. Officials Pin Hopes on Provisional Ballots : NPR