What is a provisional ballot? What to do if you’re turned away at your polling place
So you get to your polling place today, and for some reason, you’re told you can’t vote.
Maybe your name isn’t on the registered voter’s list. The ID you have doesn’t match what your state requires. Your registration doesn’t have your new address.
When it’s unclear whether you should be allowed to vote, you can ask for a provisional ballot.
“The election official is required to offer the voter a provisional ballot instead of a regular ballot,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“Provisional ballots ensure that voters are not excluded from the voting process due to an administrative error. They provide a fail-safe mechanism for voters who arrive at the polls on Election Day and whose eligibility to vote is uncertain.”
In some states, provisional ballots are also called a “challenge ballot” or an “affidavit ballot,” according to The New York Times.
Provisional ballots are required by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. A few states, however, are exempt, including Idaho, Minnesota and New Hampshire which do not provide provisional ballots, The Times reported.
“States that offered same-day voter registration at the time the National Voter Registration Act was enacted” in 1993 are exempt, the legislatures group said.
How do you know if you should fill one out?
“The first thing to do is call Election Protection and they’ll tell you what to do,” Kat Calvin, founder of Spread the Vote, told The Times.
The Election Protection Hotline, a nonpartisan coalition, is administered by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The phone number: 866-OUR-VOTE.
If you get a provisional ballot, here’s what will happen, according to the state legislatures conference.
You’ll sign a written statement, in front of an election official at the polling place, saying you are a registered voter and are eligible to vote.
“In nearly all of the states, after being cast, the provisional ballot is kept separate from other ballots until after the election,” says the state legislatures group. “A determination is then made as to whether the voter was eligible to vote, and therefore whether the ballot is to be counted.”
That decision usually rests with local election officials who go over the provisional ballots after the election, the group says. They are required to tell you how the process works and tell you how to find out if your ballot was cast, and why it wasn’t if it is ultimately rejected, the legislatures conference says.
A provisional ballot is also useful because it provides a record of the problems voters encountered at their polling place, voting rights advocates told the Chicago Tribune.