provisional ballots COUNT!!

Plus each state has different rules on when and if they are even counted, since they all have to be verified.

Presidential election seen spurring new wave of lawsuits

"The biggest battles, however, may come after Election Day, and could lead to a replay of 2000 where courts determine the next U.S. president. Disputes over the counting of such provisional ballots in swing states including Virginia, Ohio and Florida would dominate such a scenario, said Jocelyn Benson, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and director of the Michigan Center for Law and Administration.

“Provisional ballots could very likely be the hanging chads of 2012,” Benson said. “The battle over provisional ballots will take center stage where any election is close and a significant number of such ballots have been cast.”

Litigation over such ballots, usually cast when a voter’s credentials are challenged or inadequate, and counted after the polls close, may at the very least push resolution of the race between President Barack Obama and ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney past Nov. 6. Challenges have already begun, with voter advocates in Ohio Nov. 2 suing over what they said is an attempt by Republican officials there to undermine court rulings on provisional ballots."

Ohio's complicated process for counting provisional ballots could decide the presidency

"More than 200,000 were cast in Ohio in the 2008 presidential election. About 40,000 were rejected and not counted."

I asked what caused it to be missing, there was no answer. They thought they just lost the page. I did get a letter confirming that my provisional ballot was counted and I was back on the rolls - Now I vote in every single election and every single primary and school board election - and I apy my taes with a personal check and ditto my water bill. YET... my ex was still listed despite that I have written to the county clerk to take him off and he has not voted in an election for 20 years!!

Oh and I had to wait about 5 minutes to vote this year instead of the normal 5 seconds because the woman before me was off the roles.

How exactly were they edeciding how to take off names?

2008 but didn't vote in 2010 you were dropped. My landlady and my deceased mother were still on the roles and they NEVER vote. So they were basically saying that if in 2008 you registered and didn't bother to vote in 2010, AHA! We knew it. You're dropped because you're only registered to vote for Obama. That is suppression and most NJ'ers don't even know it.

the woman in front of me in line this year was dropped and she voted every year but her mother who had been dead for years was still there.
I lived in the same house and voted for 30 years now.