May 8, 2003
Presented by Jackie Jacobberger in San Francisco
Secretary, League of Women Voters of California

The League of Women Voters of California is a nonpartisan citizen organization with more than 70 local and regional Leagues across the state of California. For more than 80 years, League members have worked to educate the electorate, register voters and make government more accessible and responsive to citizens.

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires all states to offer provisional ballots to voters who claim to be registered but whose names do not appear on the registration list. Provisional ballots are set aside until after an election, when election officials must evaluate them for eligibility before counting the votes.

As the Secretary of State's HAVA Factsheet 3 points out, in California the right of a voter to cast a provisional ballot if there is any question about his or her eligibility to vote at a polling place is well established. We urge the advisory committee to direct the expansion and improvement of our system of provisional voting so that all eligible voters are able to participate in the system.

• The system for providing, verifying and counting provisional ballots must be nondiscriminatory and uniform throughout the state and within each polling place. This requires extensive, uniform poll worker training so that the system is applied consistently everywhere Californians vote.
• As with many aspects of the systems required by HAVA, voter education is essential. Voters must be educated about their right to a provisional ballot and to follow-up notification about the final status of their provisional ballot.
• A voter should be allowed to vote provisionally after signing an affidavit providing the necessary identifying information (such as name, address, and date of birth) and affirming that he or she is eligible and registered to vote, without having to provide any additional documentation.
• The system should provide for counting provisional ballots based only on a comparison of the signatures on the voter registration form and the provisional ballot.
• The provisional voting system should provide for counting a vote if the voter is eligible to vote for a particular office. For example, a voter should have his or her vote counted for a statewide election race even if a vote for a local office is not counted because the voter is not a resident of a particular district.
• The system must automatically notify a voter who cast a provisional ballot whether it was counted, and if not, why not. At a minimum, there must be a free access system such as a toll-free telephone number or an Internet Web site available to the voter.
• For voters whose provisional ballots are not counted, the information collected on the affidavit/envelope should serve as an application to register to vote, or to update the individual's address in the rolls, for future elections.

The goal in implementing the Help America Vote Act must be to make registration and voting accessible to all citizens, to protect voting rights, and to encourage an informed, active electorate. Thank you for your attention to how California's system of provisional voting can further that goal.