even if you were to be allowed to fill in a provisional ballot, these are not always counted because they require extra verification.

(And now, a word from the Chief Election Judge...)

It's true that they don't always get counted, but not because of the additional verification requirements. Provisional ballots and absentee ballots get counted (at least in my county) beginning on the Thursday after the election that's held on Tuesday. If the total number of provisional and absentee ballots is not great enough to change the results of any of the races, then they're not counted. (That actually does happen sometimes.) If even one race could be decided by that big pile of paper, then yes, they get counted. Before counting actually begins, there's a voter verification screening to insure that the provisional ballots were filled out by eligible voters. Each provisional ballot comes with an affidavit signed by an election judge explaining why the provisional ballot is being cast. Every one of those affidavits gets checked by the board of elections before the provisional ballots go into the pile of ballots to be counted. In my experience, very few of the provisional ballots get discarded due to the voter being unqualified to vote, though often only the votes in the statewide and nationwide elections will be counted because a person voted in the wrong location.

Of course all this is based on my own experience in Anne Arundel county Maryland, and I know these things vary somewhat from state to state.

Given the widespread distrust of electronic voting machines, we're seeing more people than ever voting absentee. So I'd say it's certain the canvassing of the paper ballots will be happening this year. (Hey, *I* voted absentee.)

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In Fairfax County (VA), mailed absentee ballots are counted on Election Day. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right search string to find when/if conditional ballots are counted though.

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That's impressive that they're able to muster enough people to count the absentee ballots on election day. Kudos to Fairfax county!

Provisional ballots can't be counted on election day, since they're filled out at the polling place and then turned in at the end of the day. Maryland counts them on Thursday so the people who worked all day Tuesday can get a bit of rest before they're back at it.

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I'm always surprised that the folks who do these types of announcements wait until the last minute. In my state it's already too late to register for this year's election. If you've waited this long to check, so sorry...

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