Posted on Fri, Dec. 31, 2004
They're better odds than Lotto. Still, if you were one of 27,451 Florida voters forced to cast a provisional ballot in the 2004 election, chances are your vote didn't count.
Two-thirds of all provisional ballots submitted in the general election were rejected, according to a Tallahassee Democrat analysis of reports provided by the state's 67 county supervisors of elections. Most ballots were thrown out because the voter was not registered in that county.
Provisional ballots were required for the first time nationwide in the 2004 election as a way to give elections officials more time to verify ballots of voters whose eligibility was in question. It would be expected that most voters who don't show up on the voting rolls would be ineligible to vote.
Still, the high rejection rate gives some election activists pause.
For a full analysis of the use of provisional ballots in Florida, as well as what elections officials and voter activists think needs to happen next, read Saturday's Tallahassee Democrat.
