Provisionals at heart of Missouri’s up-in-air status
About 7,000 provisional ballots — virtually all from Missouri’s two urban areas — will likely decide whether the state sticks with Republican John McCain or shifts into the column of Democratic president-elect Barack Obama.
Almost half of those ballots were cast in St. Louis County, and the bulk of those in predominantly African-American polling places. Apparently, at some polling sites, if questions arose about a would-be voter’s status Tuesday, they were handed a provisional ballot. Poll workers could have called the county Election Board headquarters instead.
A spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s office says that, generally speaking, only 30-40 percent of provisional ballots get counted. The chief reason for the toss-out? The person was in the wrong polling place.
I say “376 or Fight!” See: http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/5440orfight.htm