2006-11-08 23:30:04 · 2 answers · asked by Wego The Dog 5 in Politics & Government ➔ Elections
Provisional ballots are given to those who claimed to have registered to vote, but for some reason do not appear on the poll books. For example, say a person registers to vote at the DMV (Dept. of Motor Vehicles) and the application never gets processed because it didn't make it from the DMV to the election office. The person may then show up on election day thinking that they are registered. The poll worker has no record of them being registered so the voter is given a provisional (paper) ballot and the election office will then have the DMV check their records to see if the person did actually register at their office.
If it is determined that the person did attempt to register then their ballot will be counted, if no record is found then the ballot is dismissed. A letter will be sent to the voter letting them know whether or not the ballot was counted.
2006-11-09 01:32:35 · answer #1 · answered by tnmtngirl 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They are given to people who show up at a polling place and are not on the official rolls for the poll workers. They'll hand out those ballots if the person insists they are registered to vote. The poll workers are supposed to set those people's ballots aside and check their registration.
They're bogus. It's a way to keep a person quiet and allow them to fill out "something" so they think they voted. 9 times out of 10 they are never used in an election, because the election boards don't bother to check if the person's registered, as they are required to do.
Don't ever allow a poll worker to give you a provisional ballot, demand an official ballot only.
2006-11-09 08:26:45 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋