Record the Disposition of a Provisional Ballot

When a voter votes by provisional ballot, the status of their ballot is Pending until the Canvassing Board determines whether the ballot will be accepted. When you record the disposition of the ballot, the status changes to TabulatedorNot Tabulated, depending on the decision of the Canvassing Board.

  1. Ensure that the correct election is in focus.

  2. Go to ELECTIONS > Record Provisional Ballot to bring up the New Provisional Ballot Entry dialog.

  3. In the Tracking Number field, enter the tracking number of the provisional ballot and press the Tab key to fill the fields with previously entered data for this provisional ballot.

Note:  If you don't know the tracking number, you can get it from the Provisional Voters report. Or if the voter is in the database, access the voter's record, click the Elections tab, select the election, and click Provisional to open the Provisional Ballot Inquiry dialog, which displays the tracking number.

  1. If the Canvassing Board rejected the voter's provisional ballot, select a reason in the Reason for Rejection field and change the value in Tabulation Status to Not Tabulated.

  2. If the voter's ballot was accepted by the Canvassing Board and has been tabulated for the election, select Ballot was Tabulated.

  3. If you have any comments to add, enter them in the Findings field. The purpose of this field is to record information gathered by the elections office as to the voter’s eligibility in this election or to document the reason for tabulation or rejection of an provisional ballot. You can insert a finding from the standard list, type in your own text, or add a standard finding and amend it. To insert a finding from the standard list, select the finding you want from the drop-down list labeled Click to add Findings.

  4. To print a Provisional Referral Sheet to your default printer, click, Print Referral Sheet. This sheet includes all voter information plus any provisional reasons and findings.

  5. Click OK to save the changes to the record.

If the voter is in the database, you can view the provisional ballot record by bringing up the voter's record, clicking the Elections tab, selecting the election, and clicking Provisional to open the Provisional Ballot Inquiry dialog. You cannot make changes to the provisional-ballot record from this dialog; it is intended for inquiry only.

Once the disposition has been recorded, you can then schedule the printing of Provisional Disposition Letters, which advise voters whether their provisional ballot was tabulated or rejected.