State election officials contend that expanding the identification requirements now would produce Election Day chaos, as well as disenfranchise Native American voters who may not have the type of ID required.
That already happened during South Dakota's June primary, when poll workers confused about new identification requirements failed to tell Native Americans they were allowed to sign an affidavit in lieu of showing an ID.
That in a number of swing states only some voters will be required to produce identification is likely to lead to charges of discrimination -- founded or not -- and a flurry of Election Day court filings, said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, which tracks changes in balloting equipment and methods.
"In the current environment," he said, "any little thing that generates a spark will produce a fire."
Provisional Ballots
One of the most popular post-Florida reforms contained in the Help America Vote Act was a mandate that all states give voters a provisional ballot when they arrive at a polling place and their names are not on the rolls. Voters who feel they are the victim of a registration error can cast a ballot, and election officials can research their eligibility after Election Day.
But the reform is creating a host of new problems that have already led to lost ballots, contested elections and legal battles.
"Provisional ballots will be the hanging chads of 2004," predicted Ralph G. Neas, director of the nonprofit People for the American Way Foundation, a liberal organization that has been working for voting law change.
Some states, including seven that are contested, refuse to count a vote for president, even if the voter is eligible, if the ballot is cast in the wrong precinct or congressional district.
That has already caused problems: Of the 5,914 provisional ballots cast in a recent Chicago race, only 416 were counted. Most were disqualified because election officials allowed voters to cast the ballots in the wrong ward or did not ensure that forms were properly filled out.
Experiences such as that led Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (R) to reverse course last month and allow provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct to be counted. "It's ridiculous to penalize a voter for an election official error," Blackwell spokesman Carlo Loparo said.
Not everyone agrees. Labor unions and the Democratic Party have filed lawsuits in Florida and Missouri challenging the validity of similar provisions. Meanwhile, some election officials worry that provisional ballots will not be counted at all.
Verifying voter eligibility and hand-counting provisional ballots is time consuming -- time that election officials will not have in some states. Florida officials, for instance, set a two-day deadline for verifying those ballots, which local election officials have objected to, saying it is not enough.
If the margin of victory in this year's presidential contest is smaller than the number of provisional ballots cast, Leon County election supervisor Ion Sancho said that could lead to the same scenario that caused the 2000 debacle: counties pleading for more time to count, and the secretary of state saying no.
"If you had a thousand of these cast, there's no way we could do the research and comply with the deadline," he said. "I can definitely foresee a circumstance where litigation could occur."
