STL Post-Dispatch: In Missouri, provisional ballots hold the key to presidential results

[usregimechange]

Republican John McCain's 5,868-vote edge in Missouri over Democrat Barack Obama and the state's 104-year record as the nation's best presidential bellwether both hinge on 7,085 votes in the state that have yet to be counted.

All are "provisional ballots" cast by people whose status as registered voters could not be verified when they showed up at the polls Tuesday.

St. Louis County election officials estimate that about 3,000 of those ballots were cast in county polling places. Another 750 came from the city of St. Louis. About 800-plus were cast in the Kansas City area, and the rest are sprinkled from around the state.

All sides agree that the geography implies that most of the provisional ballots included votes for Obama.

Election officials have two weeks to check out the ballots and decide which ones should count.

State Republican and Democratic politicians and officials already are zeroing in. So are voting-rights lawyers who accuse some polling-place officials, especially in African-American neighborhoods where lines were long and voting equipment short, of inappropriately handing out provisional ballots Tuesday instead of taking the time to check out a voter's status with Election Board officials.

Since their use became required by federal law in 2004, a majority of provisional ballots in Missouri have ended up getting tossed in the trash.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/F85F88091CAD44AD862574F900174E9F?OpenDocument

[usregimechange]

1. Recount?

[Eric J in MN]

2. "where lines were long and voting equipment short"

We need a federal minimum on number of voting machines in relation to the number of citizens over 18 in the precinct.

[Labors of Hercules]

4. yep. And $$$ assistance to make it so.

[elocs]

3. The solution to provisional ballots: registration at the polls.

Wisconsin as it and in 2004 there were 3 million ballots cast with only 300 provisional ballots.

[usregimechange]

6. Yep. No luck with that with MOs GOP legislature

[SteppingRazor]

5. Eh. When it's all over, given the percentages already posted in St. Louis, KC and elsewhere....

I imagine McCain will have about a 2,000-vote edge instead of a 5,800-vote edge. Still a McCain win. I could be wrong, of course, but it'll be very tough for 7,000 votes to overcome a 5,800-vote advantage. And unless people's right to vote has somehow been infringed, I don't think a recount should happen. Cost outweighs the benefit.

[catgirl]

7. "most of the provisional ballots included votes for Obama"

I'd love to see Obama win Missouri for Claire McCaskill. She worked so hard and she
deserves the joy that a blue MO would give her.