Group: Many New York votes disqualified

By YANCEY ROY    The Journal News    03 May 2005

Regional ballots

A look at provisional ballots in the northern suburbs

County Ballots cast Ballots invalidated Pct. invalidated

Putnam 467 60 13

Rockland 1,484 159 11

Westchester 10,354 5,295 51

ALBANY ? A quarter of a million New Yorkers were forced to vote on paper ballots last fall ? and more than 150,000 had their votes disqualified because of disputes with a local election board, a new report showed yesterday.

The number is the second highest among states and comes as the state Legislature deliberates an election-law overhaul. The number is also up significantly from previous presidential election years.

Advocates say the high use of paper or "provisional" ballots ? used when, say, a voter can't find his name in the election rolls ? shows that New York should allow voters to register and vote on Election Day.

States that permit Election Day registration, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, enjoy high voter turnout, a coalition of groups said. Minnesota has 78 percent turnout, while 75 percent voted in Wisconsin. New York, at 57 percent, ranked near the bottom.

"Election Day voter registration is one of the easiest steps our state Legislature could take to expand voter participation," said Doug Israel of Citizens Union, one of the five groups that issued the report.

New York requires voters to be registered 25 days before an election. Many states require 20 to 30 days. But New York had a large number of provisional ballots cast: 257,775. Only California, with 668,408, had more. Similar-sized states, such as Texas with 25,743 and Florida with 27,742, had much smaller totals.

New York's number is on the rise. In 2000, there were 221,876 provisional ballots. In 1996, it was just 160,326.

New York also disqualifies a high percentage of paper ballots: 59 percent, or 151,776 last year. The national average is 35 percent.

In New York, voters can be directed to use a provisional ballot for a number of reasons, said Board of Elections spokesman Lee Daghlian. They could think they're registered when they're not. They could have shown up at the wrong polling place. They might have gone five years without voting and have been purged from the rolls.

He said he couldn't explain why so many paper ballots were disqualified.

The paper-ballot issue is timely because the Legislature is debating over a series of election-law changes, including identification required for first-time voters. Democrats want a wide array of acceptable ID. Republicans generally want a more limited number ? to prevent fraud, they said.

Similarly, some legislators say Election Day registration would open the door to fraud and create management headaches for overwhelmed local election boards. A bill to allow Election Day registration, sponsored by Assemblyman Scott Stringer, D-Manhattan, has been bottled up in committee.

A League of Women Voters spokeswoman said states like Minnesota that allow a voter to register on Election Day have not seen a rise in fraud. Besides, making the switch would entice voters who get interested in elections late in the race, said Aimee Allaud, the spokeswoman.

Disputes over provisional ballots were at the heart of court battles over the results in last year's 35th Senate District race between Sen. Nicholas Spano and challenger Andrea Stewart-Cousins. The November election wasn't resolved until February, and hundreds of ballots were not counted for various reasons.