What Is A Provisional Voting Ballot

The provisional vote information sheets are collected separately from the provisional ballots which go into the sealed box.

What is a provisional voting ballot. A provisional ballot goes in an envelope and not in the actual machine on election day. You would cast a provisional ballot for a few reasons such as forgetting your id or if you need to register. Someone who is not in the voter rolls but says they submitted a provisional application prior to the deadline signs an affidavit to swear to that fact. After the voter casts a provisional ballot the elections official will check the records to ensure that the voter did not cast their vote by mail ballot.

Regardless of the issue the voter should be offered a provisional ballot to vote. A provisional ballot goes in an envelope and not in the actual machine on election day. A provisional ballot is given to voters who say they are properly registered in the state and that they re eligible to vote at the precinct in a particular election but their eligibility cannot. The point of provisional ballots is to be able to give voters who think that a mistake was made about their eligibility the opportunity to cast a ballot that will count while at the same time giving elections administrators a chance to look at their records and make an assessment on whether there was eligibility said myrna pérez director of the new york based brennan center s.

In elections in the united states a provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there are questions about a given voter s eligibility that must be resolved before the vote can count. If this is the case and the voter s signature on the provisional ballot envelope matches the signature on the voter s registration card then the voter s provisional ballot will be counted. The federal help america vote act of 2002 guarantees that in most states the voter can cast a provisional ballot if the voter states that they are entitled to vote. Making your vote count.

If the voter decides that a provisional ballot is the best option they cannot get to their correct polling location before polls close or there is another issue where a provisional ballot is the only option the help desk worker will give them a form called a provisional ballot application. If election officials cannot verify the voter s registration or if the voter doesn t have a valid id texas requires an affidavit that states why the voter is qualified to vote.