By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Provisional ballots have gotten a bad wrap in recent elections. In reality, the ballots are just one more way to ensure as many voters as possible can participate in the democratic process. Voters who showed up without a valid photo ID during this month's General Election were still able to cast a provisional ballot. Darin DeWitt, voter registration clerk for Barton County, said that ballot only counted if the voter provided a valid ID before the canvass the Tuesday after the election.
"If they can't make it up to show us the ID, we obviously can't count that ballot because we don't know for sure that's you," he said. "We try to make every vote count. That's our goal. We want 100 percent of them to be counted. That's what we want. Unfortunately, there are rules."
Other reasons for using a provisional ballot include address discrepancies or showing up to the wrong polling location. All of those issues are sorted out by the board of commissioners during the canvass. Anyone who has seen a political map knows how odd voting districts can be. That's why poll workers ask to confirm an address before voting.
"We're looking to get you the right ballot so everything can count," DeWitt said. "So mailing addresses, in this situation for voting, doesn't make any different to us. It doesn't help us. We need to know your physical address."
Provisional ballots may end up in a partial count. For example, all registered voters in Barton County were eligible to vote in the presidential race. That vote on the ballot would count even if officials determined the voter did not vote in the correct city council ward. The city council vote would be nullified.
Provisional ballots can determine races. The clerk's office posts unofficial results the night of each election, but with several hundred provisional ballots counted during the canvass, close races may be decided those ballots. Election staff, with a knowledge of election rules, makes a recommendation on which provisional ballots and votes shall be counted, but the board of commissioners ultimately makes the decision.
Barton County Election Officer Bev Schmeidler reminds residents that any move requires a voter to re-register with the clerk's office, even if it is just across the hall of an apartment complex. Something as simple as a move across the street can change a voter's precinct.