[EL] Quick question about provisional voting in California

[Fredric Woocher]

Nate,

I do not know the answer for certain, but unless the voter hands in the unvoted VBM ballot, I don’t see how it could be otherwise.  For those counties that will still be using traditional polling places, there is no other way for the pollworkers to know whether the voted VBM has already been returned prior to casting a ballot at the polling place.

I believe some counties that have the ability to use electronic polling books, with real-time countywide information on who has voted and by what means, may be able to avoid the use of provisional ballots, but I don’t see how that can be avoided in other counties.

And this has the potential to introduce an additional grounds for invalidating the voted ballot, because many people forget to sign their provisional ballots in every election.

Fredric D. Woocher
Strumwasser & Woocher LLP
10940 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 2000
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(310) 576-1233 x105

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From: Law-election [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Nate Persily
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2020 11:45 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] Quick question about provisional voting in California

Does anyone know if the voters who will choose to vote in person in California this November will need to vote a provisional ballot?  That is, given that all active registrants will receive ballots in the mail, will those who opt for polling places necessarily be casting a provisional ballot, rather than a "normal" ballot?

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Nate Persily

James B. McClatchy Professor of Law
Stanford Law School
559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
(917) 570-3223
npersily at stanford.edu<mailto:npersily at stanford.edu>

www.persily.com<http://www.persily.com/>
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