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