Materials Research Archive

Provisional balloting was one of the centerpieces of the election reform package Congress passed in response to the widespread problems reported in the 2000 presidential election.1 In 2000, millions of eligible voters were turned away from the polls because administrative errors caused their names to be omitted from the registration rolls.2 The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project estimated that 1.5 million rejected votes of eligible voters could have been saved by use of provisional ballots.3 The National Commission on Election Reform, chaired by former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carte

This report provides a summary of state statutes providing for the tabulation of provisional ballots.1 The first section contains summaries of District of Columbia and state provisional voting tabulation statutes, organized in alphabetical order; the second section contains summaries of five state statutes providing for election-day registration (also known as “same-day registration”), organized in alphabetical order; and the third section contains a summary of one state statute providing that voter registration is not a requirement for voting.

This paper discusses major considerations election officials should ponder before determining the extent to which their future election or voting system implements a predominantly COTS inclusive approach.

hart 6 2 1 L A use procedures May 17 2016