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New rules for counting provisional ballots

Ohio's elections chief has issued new rules for counting provisional ballots in Ohio in response to a federal judge's order seeking more access for the coming presidential election.  Secretary of State Jon Husted has directed poll workers to count all so-called "right church, wrong pew" ballots.  Those are ballots cast by voters who show up at the correct polling place but are erroneously directed to vote in the wrong precinct.  U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley noted in his August order that this issue has become an increasing problem as the number of multi-precinct locations ggrows, particularly in urban areas.  Poll workers gave more than 3,300 wrong precinct provisional ballots to voters last year.  Husted plans to appeal Marbley's order to count provisional ballots that lack envelope signatures.