The presidential election was called at the moment California polls closed, but it could be more than a month before the votes are officially counted, as elections officials sort through a significant number of provisional ballots.
Adam Hein, who lives in Westwood with his sister, a UCLA student, received his sample ballot in mid-October, and it told him to report to 500 Landfair Ave.
But when he showed up to vote at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Hein discovered he was not listed in the rosters.
“I was supposed to be in the books, and I wasn’t in the books,” Hein, 22, said. “It was a little confusing, and I went to a different table, and they didn’t have me there. I just wanted to get my vote counted, that was all.”
Poll workers told Hein he could vote, but his provisional ballot wouldn’t be counted for about 40 days, he said.
Hein is just one of many young voters in Westwood who filled out provisional ballots. At 515 Landfair Ave., the Alpha Gamma Omega fraternity house was split into two precincts. By 7:15 p.m., 155 voters had sealed their votes into special pink envelopes in the Green Precinct alone.
“Before the polls opened, I knew this would happen,” said precinct inspector Roxanne Stern. She explained that college students often move out of the counties where they originally registered.
In 2005, the Pew Center on the States reported that only about two-thirds of provisional ballots cast in the 2004 presidential election were counted, and percentages varied widely by state.
California’s provisional voting statutes, enacted in 1984, were set to ensure that properly registered voters are not denied the right to vote because of clerical errors, as well as to allow officials to make sure no voter casts two ballots, according to the Web site for the California Secretary of State.
Provisional ballots are identical to those used by other voters but are sealed into individual envelopes instead of being processed immediately.
Elections officials then must ensure that a voter’s address and signature matches the information provided on his or her original voter registration form.
Many of the students who trickled in to the fraternity house late Tuesday expected to vote provisionally, either because they had missed the deadline to change their voting address or because they were not sure where they were registered.
Jeff Chang, a fifth-year economics student, arrived around 7:40 p.m. and told Stern he “moved around a lot” and was not sure what county his registration was in.
But in AGO’s Orange Precinct, inspector Steven Davenport said about 40 percent of the provisional ballots issued were given to students whose sample ballots indicated they were in the right place.
“I’ve seen, like, maybe two people today who were really upset about voting provisionally,” said poll worker Cassy Horton, a fourth-year political science student. She said both of those voters had arrived with sample ballots that indicated they were in the rosters.
Shirin Tahmasebi, who graduated from UCLA in 2008, has been registered at the same address since 2003, but never received her absentee ballot.
She used Google to see what she could do and showed up at 515 Landfair to cast her vote. “As long as it’s counted, I guess I’m not upset,” she said.
Richard, identified by a poll worker as a field manager for the region of L.A. County that includes Westwood, said unlisted voters were not being disenfranchised. “All it means is the roster that they signed has been printed ahead of time,” he said.
Richard refused to give his last name or official title. When asked about similar problems around Westwood in the 2004 presidential elections and complaints that several precincts ran out of provisional ballots, he directed The Bruin to the L.A. County Registrar, which had already closed for the evening.
For the most part, Californians’ votes on state propositions will carry more weight than their presidential choices.
Speaking shortly after the election was called, Hein said about having to vote provisionally, “But not that it matters now, because Obama won.”
He added that he did want his votes on the propositions, especially his “no” vote on Proposition 8, to be counted. “I will be upset if they don’t go the way I want them to, if they don’t count my ballot.”