The use of a provisional ballot shouldn’t be considered a means to deny a voter a chance to cast a ballot, Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday.

Nor, he said, should the voting method be used as a negative in the state-federal fight over Florida’s efforts to identify and remove non-U.S. citizens from the list of voters.

Scott says he knows all about provisional ballots because he had to fill one out in the past. Why?  Because once when he went to a voting precinct in Collier County, a poll worker informed him he was dead -- officially, anyway.

He filled out a provisional ballot, and -- after he was deemed, like Lazarus in the Bible's Gospel of John, to be alive after all -- was counted with the overall vote totals.

“I said, ‘I’m still alive’ and it was counted,” Scott said.

Scott actually had to use the provisional ballots on two occasions in 2006, for both the primary and general elections, according to Collier County Supervisor of Elections Chief Deputy Tim Durham.

Scott was incorrectly listed as having died in 2006 due to a mix-up with the Social Security Index. A Florida resident, Richard E. Scott, with the same date of birth as future governor Richard L. Scott, had died Jan. 27, 2006.

“Oddly enough, I think of the chances of this happening; this is the first I’m aware of a person being wrongfully identified as deceased,” Durham said.

Scott said anyone whose name is removed from the list of voters can challenge the ruling by casting a provisional ballot.

Currently, the state requires an intended voter to use a provisional ballot if they do not have acceptable photo and signature identification at the polls; or one’s eligibility has been challenged by another person, you are in the wrong precinct when you vote, you do not appear on the precinct register,

The local canvassing board must count the provisional ballot unless they determine the individual is not entitled to vote. Voting in the wrong precinct draws an automatic rejection of the ballot.

Durham noted that in Collier County, large elections may result in 100 to 200 people voting with provisional ballots. Nearly two-thirds are due to people failing to bring proper identification.

Others are because people are from other states and believe they can vote in Florida as well, or they go to the wrong precinct. Despite being advised to go to the proper polling location, they insist on voting provisionally.

Scott returned to the airwaves Thursday, pushing the state’s case in the court of public opinion, where he expressed optimism that Florida would prevail in its lawsuit against the Obama administration to gain access to a Homeland Security database to aid the search for noncitizens.
  
The U.S. Department of Justice has countered with its own lawsuit claiming that the state must stop the effort as federal laws prohibit such work within 90 days of an election.

“I can’t image we’re not going to win,” Scott said while continuing to plead the state’s case in the court of public opinion in separate interviews on WFLA 970-AM in Tampa, WFLA 100.7-FM in Tallahassee and 9.25-FM Fox News in Fort Myers.

“You don’t have a right to vote in the Spanish elections or French elections, noncitizens shouldn’t be voting in ours.”

On Tuesday, Scott went on the national airwaves focused on the state’s registration effort, with interviews that included appearances on Fox News and CNN.



Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.