They weren’t quite the “hanging chad” of 2004, nor quite the safeguard envisioned by voting rights advocates. But regardless of how they were perceived, provisional voting was one of the most controversial aspects of post-Florida election reform around the country.

For this briefing, the first of a series examining election reform issues, electionline.org and The Constitution Project surveyed election administrators in all 50 states and the District of Columbia regarding provisional voting. The research revealed no national standard; indeed, no two states implement this safeguard in exactly the same way. The survey discovered a collection […]