USAToday--Standby Ballots Already Disputed

[Demeter]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2004-10-10-standby-ballots_x.htm

"Standby ballots already disputed

By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY

Federal and state election officials are worried that changes made after the 2000 presidential race to ensure that voters are not turned away from the polls could lead to more confusion and court fights this year.

Under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, each state must provide standby ballots to voters if they cannot be found on registration lists, are in the wrong polling place or don't have proper identification but insist they are eligible to vote. Those people will be given "provisional" ballots that will be kept separate from others until their eligibility can be confirmed.

"Provisional ballots could be the hanging chads of 2004," says Tony Sirvello, director of an association of local election administrators. "If there's a state as close as Florida was in 2000, this could have a major effect."

...............

"Democrats worry more about access," says Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a non-profit research group that studies voting systems. "Republicans tend to worry about the integrity of the system.""

Yeah--we worry that voters will never get a chance to vote, and they worry that we will!

[barbaraann]

1. John "I like teenage girls" Fund was on Lou Dobbs today

laying the groundwork for challenges to provisional ballots. He has written a book about "stolen elections."

Fund was tossing out "facts" faster than I could remember them but it seemed to me that they are planning to take election challenges to GOP-friendly state Supreme Courts.