1. Voter Registration Problems
These problems include citizens who apply to register to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or other agencies under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) but whose applications have not been properly forwarded to or acted on by registrars; incomplete voter lists at polling places; and voters going to the “wrong” polling place due to inadequate communication of polling place locations or because they have moved within a jurisdiction.
2. Erroneous Purging
In addition to troubles in getting on the registration rolls, many voters will find they have been erroneously removed from the list. In the 2000 election, hundreds of eligible Florida citizens were mistakenly identified as felons and were removed from registration lists because of flawed data and a faulty data matching process.
3. Problems with the New ID Requirement
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires that first-time applicants who register by mail present ID prior to voting on Election Day unless the state has already verified their identity. While HAVA says the application of the new requirement must be “uniform and non-discriminatory,” many states have yet to establish mechanisms for ensuring uniform and nondiscriminatory application. New procedures can lead to confusion and, ultimately, wrongful disenfranchisement on Election Day. The new requirement opens the door to unequal and discriminatory treatment.
4. Difficulties with Voting Systems
Unfamiliarity with a voting system on the part of voters, election administrators or poll workers can lead to confusion on Election Day. Most jurisdictions will not be switching to new voting machines in 2004, so, many voters will vote on the same systems they used previously. This means we can expect the same types of problems we saw in 2000: confusing ballot design, machines that don’t work and votes that are never counted.
5. Failure to Count Provisional Ballots
Provisional ballots are intended as a safeguard for voters whose eligibility is in question on Election Day, including those whose voter registration is in doubt, who may have been erroneously purged or who have ID problems (see items 1, 2 and 3). HAVA requires that povisional ballots must be counted if the voter is eligible to vote. However, some election officials have chosen to apply standards for counting provisional ballots that are unrelated to voter eligibility. In a recent Illinois primary, one jurisdiction rejected 93 percent of the provisional ballots cast. Most were rejected because poll workers failed to notify voters that they had to cast these votes in their assigned precinct in order to be counted under state law.
*Compiled by the League of Women Voters and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
