This story was reported and written by our media partner Capital News Service.
Keith Bell likes to vote early at the City of Richmond Office of Elections. The last several elections, Bell filled out a ballot with no issues.
That was not his experience this year. Bell arrived ready to vote but was told his voter registration had been canceled and that he was listed as a “failure to respond.”
An election official said Bell had requested an absentee ballot, but Bell said he never requested one. The absentee ballot request was to an address Bell has not used for seven years, he said.
After Bell made it clear he had not tried to vote by any other method, the election officials registered him on the spot, and Bell was able to cast his vote.
“They re-registered me, and I voted,” Bell said. “It took about an hour, and it was painless, but they just kept telling me that I ordered an absentee ballot from an address that I don’t live at.”
Because Bell went to vote in September, prior to the Oct. 15 registration deadline, he could register and cast a regular ballot that same day.
Voters can still register after that deadline thanks to a bill passed in 2020, which took effect in 2022. The process is referred to as same-day registration, or SDR. Voters who use SDR submit provisional ballots, which give the electoral board a chance to review the voters’ eligibility.
What Is A Provisional Ballot?
The Help America Vote Act introduced provisional ballots in 2002. Congress passed the law to reform the election process following the controversial 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, according to the Election Assistance Commission, or EAC. The act mandated all states provide provisional ballot options for potentially ineligible voters as a fail-safe.
Other HAVA reforms included strict standards for voting machines, ballots offered in multiple languages and easy-to-understand education material for voters.
An election official will offer a provisional ballot if the voter’s eligibility cannot be readily verified, their identity is in question, they lack proper ID, an absentee ballot was requested on behalf of the voter but they report not requesting or casting it, or the voter’s address or name do not match their registration information, according to federal law.
Rich Meagher, a professor of political science at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, calls provisional ballots a “fail-safe,” a phrase used by the EAC.
“The provisional ballot is a way to try to ensure that people still have a voice,” Meagher said. “To make sure that folks who have the right to vote get a chance to have their vote counted.
This method of voting can be especially important in college towns. Most of the provisional ballots cast last year in Williamsburg were from William & Mary students who registered that same day, according to a spokesperson from the Williamsburg city manager's office. Meagher believes this to be one of the most important functions of provisional ballots.
“It’s a transient population in a lot of ways at colleges,” Meagher said. “A lot of students do vote at their college address, and they’re only temporarily living there.”
Busy college students may forget to register, or request an absentee ballot before the deadlines. Students may mistakenly believe they will go back home, or suddenly realize Election Day has arrived. Provisional ballots provide an avenue for them to exercise their right to vote.
How Do Provisional Ballots Work?
A provisional voter will fill out their information on a green envelope before they are given a ballot. Voters utilizing SDR fill out the front of the envelope. Voters with other situations fill out the back.
The envelope requests the voter provide identifying information, with a warning that knowingly false statements are punishable as fraud, according to state law.
“The front of this green envelope is a voter registration application,” said Samantha Shepherd, communications manager of the Loudoun County Office of Elections. “They fill that out, they vote their ballot, and then they stick their ballot inside of the green envelope.”
All of the provisional envelopes are placed in another envelope with a list of all voters who cast their ballots this way. Starting the day after Election Day, the local electoral staff meet to review provisional ballots and determine each voter’s eligibility, according to the ELECT handbook.
The location and time of the electoral board meeting is provided to provisional voters when they cast their ballots. This gives the voter time to provide evidence of their registration or request an extension.
The local electoral boards must determine the voter’s eligibility before their provisional envelope is opened. The ballot is only counted if the voter is determined eligible. Otherwise, the voter’s selections are kept secret and the ballot is discarded. A voter is notified by mail if their ballot is discarded, according to Shepherd.
How Provisional Ballots Impact Election Officials
Some rural counties in Virginia counted fewer than 10 provisional ballots in 2023. Counties like Fairfax and Loudoun counted over 1,000, according to ELECT. Some localities expect to see a high volume of provisional ballots because of this year’s presidential race.
“For this election that other envelope is actually a box, because we’re expecting to have so many same-day voter registration provisional envelopes,” Shepherd said.
Loudoun County has already received over 600 provisional votes as of Oct. 31, according to Shepherd.
“It is all hands on deck the day after the election for processing provisional ballots,” Shepherd said.
The Loudoun County Office of Elections has 17 permanent staff. The county added an additional 17 temporary hires for the election. At least 12 staff members will work only on provisional ballots after the election in order to meet the Friday deadline, according to Shepherd.
General registrars ranked SDR as their biggest challenge in 2022, according to ELECT.
ELECT brought together several general registrars to improve the SDR process in early 2023, according to an annual report. This group noted areas within the process that required clearer guidance and removed the redundant step of a SDR voter having to fill out a registration form and provisional ballot envelope to speed up the process.
Why Is All Of This Important?
Election security is a major focus of political campaigns and news reports, especially since former President Donald Trump claimed the 2020 election was stolen. An Associated Press investigation found fewer than 475 cases of voter fraud in the U.S., a number that would not have changed the election outcome.
Virginia’s registered voter list undergoes regular updates to maintain the most accurate roster, according to the ELECT annual maintenance report.
The population of registered voters grows as individuals come of age or move into the state, but it shrinks when voters die, move to another state or are convicted of a felony. Voter lists must be maintained to preserve the integrity of elections, according to EAC.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August focused on “comprehensive election security.” This included a provision that required daily updates to the voter list, whereas maintenance updates were previously done monthly, according to the 2024 maintenance report.
There was controversy over the governor’s directive due to a potential incompatibility with the “quiet period” provision of the National Voter Registration Act, which states programs used to systematically remove ineligible voters from the list must be completed no later than 90 days before the election.
The governor’s executive order was issued exactly 90 days before Nov. 5.
Keith Bell’s voting experience is the type of thing that happens when registered voter lists are edited close to an election, according to Meagher.
“There’s a reason why there’s a federal law that suggests you shouldn’t in the 90 days before an election,” Meagher said. “You increase the chances of these kinds of mistakes.”
Provisional ballots are a safety net for voters, but could make the voting process more “mystifying,” according to Meagher.
“I almost kind of feel like it should have a better marketing campaign,” Meagher said. “Let’s call it a safety ballot or something a little bit easier to understand to make people feel better about elections.”
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.
