NEWS
November 3, 2004 | By Maria Panaritis and Keith Herbert INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
For the first time in a presidential election, provisional ballots were used in most states, including Pennsylvania, where there were scattered reports of shortages and confusion over the new method of voting. Under a 2002 federal law, prospective voters can use provisional ballots if there are questions about their eligibility to vote. The large turnout and high number of first-time voters left some Pennsylvania officials from Allegheny County to eastern Delaware County without enough ballots.
NEWS
December 8, 2004
Not long ago in Pennsylvania - as recently as the 2000 presidential election - there would have been few remedies for nearly 54,000 voters turned away because their names weren't on the rolls. In Philadelphia, these voters could have spent the next several hours making an appearance before a local elections-court judge who might, or might not, affirm their right to vote. In the suburbs, they would have had to make the possibly long trek to the county seat to lodge an appeal.
NEWS
November 7, 1997 | By Mary Beth Warner, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
A late-night letter from the state attorney general on Election Night ordered the provisional ballots in all counties to be impounded, and that has stalled final vote counts for state, county and municipal races. Around midnight on Tuesday, when the gubernatorial race was still neck-and-neck, Attorney General Peter Verniero ordered counties to place the provisional ballots under lock and key and posted state troopers on 24-hour guard. Yesterday, the troopers remained in place as candidates and party officials across the state awaited the official results of some of the closest races.
NEWS
November 25, 1996 | By Mary Beth Warner, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
New Jersey's provisional ballots, which were supposed to make it easier for people who had moved within their county to vote, ended up costing the state hundreds of thousands of dollars for printing, and the counties untold thousands for workers' overtime and retraining. And the 15,000 votes that the provisional ballots brought on Nov. 5 probably won't warrant their return next year, state election officials say. The new ballots came to New Jersey this year because of a provision in the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the "motor-voter law. " It required states to give voting rights to those who had moved within their jurisdiction, or county, but who had not changed their address with the local board of elections.
NEWS
November 7, 1996 | By Stephanie Brenowitz, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT Contributing to this article was Inquirer correspondent Brian Thevenot
Republicans were tentatively declaring victory in Voorhees yesterday, but Mayor Pamela Hammer and the Democrats say they won't admit defeat until 186 provisional ballots are counted this morning. While everyone anxiously awaited the final count, some blamed the new provisional ballots for the confusion. Tuesday's poll results showed that Hammer, who led the race with 4,316 votes, held on to her Township Committee seat but lost her post as mayor. Republican Craig Reider, with 4,234 votes, appeared to have captured the second open seat, which would give his party the majority on the five-person committee and the right to select a Republican as next year's mayor.
NEWS
November 15, 1996 | By Stephanie Brenowitz, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
For more than a week, the political landscape in Voorhees was stuck in uncertainty. But when the county finished counting and verifying 186 provisional ballots yesterday, the results were no different than on election night: Democratic Mayor Pam Hammer and Republican Craig Reider had won the open seats on the Township Committee; the Republicans had gained control, and Hammer had lost her post as mayor. Hammer, who had served as mayor for the last five years, said, "I am very disappointed that the Democratic administration won't be able to lead Voorhees into the 20th century.
NEWS
December 5, 2004 | By Tina Moore INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
More than half of the provisional ballots cast in last month?s election in Pennsylvania were tossed out by county officials, an Inquirer survey has found, prompting some election observers to call for changes in the new voting method. About a third of the 53,698 ballots reviewed by county election officials were validated and accepted for all races, while 12 percent more only partially counted - that is, only votes for statewide candidates, and president, were tabulated. "If citizens of Pennsylvania tried to exercise their civic function and went to vote - as we want people to do - and relatively few were counted, well, that?s a cause for concern and suggests that laws need to be reexamined," said Edward B. Foley, director of the election law program at Ohio State University?s law school.
NEWS
November 14, 1997 | By Geoff Mulvihill, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Election officials yesterday completed a count of provisional ballots cast in Burlington and Camden Counties and announced that the unofficial results of the Seventh District Assembly race would remain the same - a split ticket. Burlington County Democratic Party officials said they would request today a recount of the results, which indicate that Republican Ken Faulkner, 49, of Delanco, and Democrat Herbert Conaway Jr., 34, of Burlington City, will be going to Trenton to represent Pennsauken and 14 communities in Burlington County.
NEWS
December 13, 2001 | By Wendy Ginsberg INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
School district officials asked the Burlington County Board of Elections yesterday to open 13 provisional ballots that were not tallied in Tuesday's tie vote on a $38 million bond issue to build two schools. The board agreed to review the ballots, but it did not say when. Provisional ballots are used by residents who went to the wrong voting location, recently changed their address, or were not properly registered. The Board of Elections can deem those ballots ineligible or have them counted.
NEWS
November 15, 1996 | By Karen Auerbach, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Swamped with thousands of handwritten ballots, county election officials say they may request an extension of the deadline for certification of county and municipal election results. The delay, caused by provisional ballots that are new to New Jersey's election process, could force candidates in close races to wait even longer to find out how they fared in the Nov. 5 election. Election workers in Burlington and Camden Counties have been working overtime to sort through the paper ballots, cast by voters who moved within a county or whose names did not appear on registration lists at their local polling site.