Election watch ~ Provisional ballot counting begins News
Election watch ~ Provisional ballot counting begins

[JURIST] Elections officials will begin counting provisional ballots Thursday in Ohio and around the country. Due to John Kerry's concession speech Wednesday (reported here on JURIST's Paper Chase) and President Bush's acceptance speech (text from the White House), the ballots will not impact the presidential election, but could still affect the results of other races. AP has more on Ohio's provisional ballots. The Sun-Sentinel has more on vote counting in Florida. The Albuquerque Journal has more on the situation in New Mexico…. Lawyers in Florida are calling for major election reform in the state, saying that problems during Tuesday's voting could have led to a protracted legal battle if the contest between Bush and Kerry had been closer. Problems reported in Florida include absentee ballots not being sent to out-of-state voters, improper challenges of voters, malfunctioning touch-screen voting machines and illegal demands that voters show two forms of identification before casting their ballot. The Miami Daily Business Review has more…. Critics of electronic voting machines are saying that problems reported during Tuesday's elections are a fraction of those that occurred and that voters may have miscast ballots without knowing there was a problem. E-Commerce Times has more…. This wraps up JURIST's daily round-up of law-related stories relating to the election. Paper Chase will, of course, continue to cover ongoing developments as they happen.