Ballot Invalidations in Ohio Tied to Turnout, Confusion

A large voter turnout and poll workers’ confusion contributed to the invalidation of many provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election, the president of the League of Women Voters said Tuesday.

In Ohio, 21% of provisional ballots were found to be invalid, compared with 13% statewide in the 2000 presidential election.

Nationally, 32% of provisional ballots cast in last year’s election were thrown out. Most states were using them for the first time.

Last year, 5.7 million Ohioans voted, compared with 4.8 million in 2000. Ohio was pivotal in the 2004 election. President Bush won the state by 118,000 votes, giving him the 270 electoral votes needed for reelection.

Provisional ballots are used when poll workers cannot immediately confirm whether a voter is properly registered.

County boards of elections had to wait until nine days before the election for a court to rule on a challenge to Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s directive that provisional ballots would be valid only if voters cast them in the precinct where they lived.

Democrats claimed the order by Blackwell, a Republican, was too restrictive and could unfairly limit Democratic votes. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Blackwell’s favor.