Wednesday, October 06, 2004

A coalition of unions, including the AFL-CIO, want the court to order election supervisors to count so-called provisional ballots regardless of where the voter turned them in.

Provisional ballots were created in the 2001 election reform law as a way to guarantee that voters whose names don't show up on the voting rolls, perhaps through error, could still vote on Election Day. If a check shows the voter is indeed eligible to vote, the ballot is counted.

Provisional ballots are on paper, just like absentee ballots.

But the caveat added by state legislators is that provisional ballots must be discarded if the voter didn't go to the right precinct. Lawyers for the unions say this violates Florida's Constitution, which requires only that voters cast their ballots in their home county. ...

Ron Labasky, who represents the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, said nothing would stop special interest groups from telling voters to go out and demand a provisional ballot at any precinct instead of using the touch-screen voting machines used in 15 counties, including Broward and Miami-Dade.

"You could have tens of thousands of people going just down the street to vote," Labasky said. "The announcement could be, 'Don't worry about where you vote, just go vote.'"