The biggest political impact could be felt in urban areas, which tend to favor Democrats, the party asserted.
``This [gubernatorial] race will wind up very tight, so these kind of votes literally could make the difference,'' said Thomas Giblin, chairman of the Democratic State Committee.
Republican leaders, on the other hand, do not view the provisional ballots as a big source of votes, said Rocco Iossa, deputy chairman of the Republican State Committee. ``Our [only] concern is that it's a workable system,'' he said.
But local election officials were less enthusiastic, saying that counties had to spend about $450,000 more last year on the provisional ballots to ease the way for 17,897 voters, or about $25 per person. They said that makes the ballots very costly for localities, which foot the bill without state help.
Under the system, a registered voter who has moved to a new home in the same county can vote simply by going to the new polling place on Election Day and filling out a paper ``provisional ballot,'' which is then verified and counted by officials in both the old and new voting districts. Under the previous system, the person had to make an extra trip to a municipal clerk to reregister a new address before being eligible to vote.
``Voters should not be subjected to overly complicated procedures on Election Day,'' Attorney General Peter Verniero wrote in approving the ballots for use in state elections.
The ballots were used last year in New Jersey under a section of the National Voter Registration Act, which required states to give voting rights to those who had moved within their jurisdiction, or county, but who had not reregistered yet with the local elections board.
Last year, 31,722 provisional ballots were submitted to counties across the state, but nearly half - 13,825 - were from unregistered voters and had to be disqualified.
