When Missouri’s presidential primary was held on Feb. 5, excitement throughout the Show-Me State reached palpable levels. However, the enthusiasm citizens felt as they went to exercise their most fundamental of democratic rights was no doubt tempered by the sad reality of electoral politics in Missouri: not everyone’s vote is counted.

In the 2004 and 2006 elections, provisional ballots, as established by the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), were given to voters who had failed to register, were attempting to vote at an incorrect polling place or had been removed from the rolls entirely. However, these ballots were rarely included in the final electoral count due to the fact that the difficulties in their validation make it far more common for them to be simply removed from the final tally. According to the secretary of state, the 2004 elections alone saw more than 4,000 Missouri provisional ballots discarded without being included in results.

In essence, provisional ballots allow would-be voters to go home thinking they have done their civic duty when they have done nothing more than allowed an election official to avoid a conflict. Thankfully, however, there are ways these problems can be corrected.

First, provisional ballots need to be eligible at any polling place. Often, these ballots are initially given out as a result of confusion regarding where a vote should be cast in the first place. It is foolish, then, that this same confusion could prevent the effective implementation of a measure originally intended to act as a safety net.

Second, a method of confirmation more efficient than the single phone line currently in place (which is overrun with calls during election periods to the point of becoming ineffective) needs to be implemented to account for the ballots themselves. Other states facing similar HAVA constraints have developed considerably more efficient methods of delivering this information. Ohio launched a Web site where citizens can check the status of their ballots, while in Texas all provisional voters are sent a notice describing why their vote was or was not counted.

The most progressive answer to the provisional ballot issue, though, is to make them obsolete entirely. Currently, seven states allow eligible citizens to register to vote on Election Day at the polling place itself, combining all steps of the electoral process into one trip. This solution improves provisional balloting in two ways. First, it allows voters to become eligible right up until the vote, capitalizing on the heavy campaigning in the last few weeks of an election cycle. Second, it gives a legitimate weight to the votes of citizens who would have otherwise been forced to vote provisionally due to a lack of prior registration.

Election Day registration is a reform that not only addresses issues of how votes are counted, but also confronts concerns about security and voter fraud in the current system. Unlike provisional ballots, registration can be easily tracked statewide, not only to allow citizens to register at a location more convenient than the one to which they are assigned, but to prevent them from illegally registering or voting at multiple locations in any contest.

Changing registration rules has been shown to be effective (the four states with the highest voter turnout in the 2004 election were all Election Day registration states) and cheap (implementation has historically cost no more than $250 per polling place). Although it would not solve all of the problems posed by provisional ballots or the electoral system as a whole, it would stand as a remarkably effective tool for progress.

If the right to vote guaranteed in the Missouri constitution is to be upheld, a method to ensure that the votes of all those who turn out are counted must be in place. Decisions on Election Day are made by the voices of those who show up, but unless the provisional balloting system changes, Missouri will be ensuring that some of those voices aren’t heard.

Nick Loyal graduated from Arts & Sciences in 2007. He can be reached at [email protected].

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