How likely are hand-in votes to disappear, where I live? Elsewhere?

Factual Questions
1

(I hate to sound paranoid, but: )

I have a pro-Obama friend who is moving shortly. No choice and no definite target address yet. I asked him whether he would have any problem voting. He said that he had been told to make an affidavit vote.

But his fear is that affidavit votes and absentee votes “will all be thrown out.” :eek:

Is this a realistic concern at all? We both live in Rochester, New York.

Are there other parts of the nation where such an abomination would be more likely?

I can’t find anything on Snopes.com, and Factcheck.org only covers rumors and misconceptions about candidates.

Last minute note: Now I can’t find anything anywhere about affidavit ballots, only affidavit registration. I now wonder whether he was relaying the correct term he had been told in the first place

  • “Jack”
2

An affidavit ballot is New York State’s term for a provisional ballot. You fill out the paper ballot, and swear an affidavit that you’re registered to vote in the district, along with your current address.

By law, if you’ve voted in the right district, New York has to count the vote, unless someone can prove that your affidavit is fraudulent.

That being said, provisional ballots are more likely to not be counted than regular ballots. Here’s a study by the Advancement Project, looking at the high rate of rejection of provisional ballots and offering suggestions as to how to correct this:

http://www.advancementproject.org/pdfs/Provisional-Ballot-Report-Final-9-16-08.pdf

If your friend is going to vote by provisional ballot and wants his vote to count, it’s important that he vote in the correct district and correct polling place, and that he follow the ballot rules exactly. A lot of provisional ballots get rejected for “administrative” reasons…because they aren’t signed in the right places or because a rule is broken.

3

In Iowa, the County Auditor (or someone from the Secretary of State’s office) has to contact any voter whose provisional ballot was rejected and tell them why it was rejected.

I wonder if other states do this. (I tried to read that study in the link, but the print was too small for me.)