Editing Provisional ballot (section)

==Potential problems==

During the [[2018 Florida elections|2018 midterm elections]], approximately 20 out of 205 provisional ballots cast in Broward County (a subset of the over 600 provisional ballots and 1.1 million total ballots cast in Broward) were rejected under signature matching requirements.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 1, 2019 |title=Precinct Summary Voter Turnout Report for the 2018 General Election Nov/06/2018 |url=https://www.browardvotes.gov/Portals/Broward/Documents/ElectionInformation/voterturnout/E215-VR-Precinct%20Summary%20Voter%20Turnout%20Report%20for%20%202018%20General%20Election%20Nov-06-2018.pdf |access-date=October 16, 2024 |website=Broward Votes—Voter Statistics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Harris |first=Alex |date=November 10, 2018 |title=Whoops! Brenda Snipes' office mixed bad provisional ballots with good ones |url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article221452655.html |access-date=October 16, 2024 |work=Miami Herald}}</ref> After this determination, both valid and invalid provisional ballots—without enclosing envelopes—were mixed together, which provided no way for them to be separated for the recount.<ref>{{cite web |last1=EL |title=Ballot mixup puts more heat... |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/broward-elections-official-brenda-snipes-mixed-illegal-provisional-ballots-with-valid-ones |website=Fox News |date=10 November 2018 |access-date=20 November 2018}}</ref>

Computer scientist and election official [[Douglas W. Jones]] has criticized the offer of a provisional ballot as "a way to brush off troublesome voters by letting them think they have voted."<ref>[[Douglas W. Jones]], [http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/cbc2004.shtml Reliability of US Voting Systems], Prepared Remarks for the [[Congressional Black Caucus]] Hearing on election preparedness
October 7, 2004.</ref> He expressed the concern that, under some states' laws, casting a provisional ballot at the wrong precinct would [[Disfranchisement|disenfranchise]] voters who could have cast valid ballots had they been redirected to the proper precinct.

Academic research has suggested that provisional ballots tend to lean more toward the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] than the electorate as a whole, and that this contributes to a phenomenon, first identified by [[Edward Foley (lawyer)|Edward Foley]] known as "[[Blue shift (politics)|blue shift]]," under which Democrats increase their share of the vote as more ballots are counted.<ref>{{Cite SSRN|last1=Foley|first1=Edward B. |last2=Stewart III|first2=Charles|date=2015-08-28|title=Explaining the Blue Shift in Election Canvassing| ssrn=2653456}}</ref> This can potentially result in a different outcome from the one indicated by the initial count on the night of the election. Some experts on voting have suggested that this shift could be misunderstood and lead to erroneous claims of [[electoral fraud]] or [[corruption]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lai|first=Jonathan|title=How does a Republican lead on election night and still lose Pennsylvania? It's called the 'blue shift.'|url=https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-2020-election-blue-shift-20200127.html|access-date=2020-08-03 |website=Philadelphia Inquirer|date=27 January 2020 }}</ref>