The Franklin County Board of Elections is still not sure how to handle provisional ballots on election day. The board is asking Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to clarify a recent ruling he made on how to deal the ballots.
Earlier this week Secretary of State Blackwell sent a letter to every county elections board in the state warning them that they can only issue provisional ballots to voters in the precinct where they live. In the past in Franklin County, people who showed up at a polling place but weren't on the list, could vote using a provisional ballot, regardless of whether they were in the correct precinct. Those ballots were later cross checked against official lists of people who had voted in the election, and then the bipartisan board of elections would decide whether the vote should count. But, William Anthony, Chairman of the Franklin County Board of Elections, says that method won't fly under the secretary of state's ruling.
