Anticipating large numbers of "provisional ballots" that cannot be counted Nov. 2, Washington County's elections director said he feared there might be a month's delay in determining the winner of the presidential race or other close contests in Pennsylvania.

The provisional ballot, used when a person's right to vote is in question, debuted in Pennsylvania during the April 27 primary. Its introduction was part of a slate of federal and state reforms that followed the 2000 presidential election, marred by vote-counting and voter-suppression controversies in Florida.

A voter may cast a provisional ballot if he goes to a polling station and learns his name isn't listed in the poll book, perhaps because of a clerical oversight or because the voter has moved. The special ballots, a different color than a county's regular ballots, also may be used by voters who forget to take an acceptable form of identification to a polling place they're using for the first time.

Regular ballots are tabulated election night. But provisional ballots are set aside until officials consult registration records to determine whether voters had the right to cast them, county Elections Director Larry Spahr said.

Spahr's office processed 103 provisional ballots after the primary. He anticipates a heavier voter turnout, perhaps 72 percent, in the general election and so is dividing 2,500 provisional ballots among the county's 184 polling stations.

If counties across the state have large numbers of provisional ballots, Spahr said, outcomes of close races might not be known "until three or four weeks after the election occurs." He said the potential impact on the neck-and-neck presidential race was significant because Pennsylvania is a battleground state.

G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster County, said Spahr's scenario was possible. However, Madonna said a crush of provisional ballots was one of many factors threatening to complicate Pennsylvania's election and invite legal challenges similar to those that prolonged vote-counting in Florida four years ago.

Commonwealth Court ruled Oct. 13 that Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader had not earned a place on the Pennsylvania ballot, a decision made after some counties had mailed absentee ballots bearing Nader's name. The state Supreme Court affirmed the ruling last week.

Madonna said the handling of absentee ballots was one of the issues prime for a legal challenge by one party or another.

Four years after the Florida debacle, Madonna said, Pennsylvania hasn't done enough to improve the voting process. He noted that the state still uses a variety of electronic and manual voting systems and that Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell touched off a firestorm two weeks ago with a plan to deploy state workers, mainly Democrats, as poll watchers statewide.

Because of such controversies, he said, Pennsylvania has the potential to be the Florida of this election.

Election officials in Philadelphia and in Westmoreland and Butler counties agreed provisional ballots have the potential to delay vote-counting.

Bob Lee, Philadelphia voter-registration administrator, said his office needed 10 days after the primary to process 683 provisional ballots and account for thousands more that weren't used.

For the general election, Lee said, he's sending 67,240 provisional ballots to 1,681 polling stations. He didn't know how many were likely to be used.

"To tell you the truth," he said, "it's a totally unknown quantity now."

Paula Pedicone, Westmoreland County elections director, and Regis Young, Butler County elections director, couldn't predict the volume of provisional ballots, either. But they agreed provisional ballots have the potential to slow the vote-counting process.

Allison Hrestak, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said she doesn't believe the volume of provisional ballots would delay vote-counting by a month.

Counties first used provisional ballots in the April primary, when voters turned out in modest numbers for races that weren't close.

Before that, a voter had two choices when he went to a polling station and learned his name wasn't in the poll book. He could contact the election office in the hope officials there could verify his registration, or he could go before a judge, plead his case and seek an order permitting him to vote.

Spahr said he was doing what he could to minimize use of provisional ballots.

Since spring, 8,000 to 10,000 people have filed registration forms or forms changing their names or addresses. Unable so far to process all of those forms in time for the election, Spahr last week had representatives of the League of Women Voters put the documents in alphabetical order.

If a person goes to the polls Election Day and learns his name isn't in the poll book, the precinct election board will call Spahr's office. League members will answer the telephones -- four additional lines will be installed by then -- and help the elections office staff consult the file of unprocessed documents.

If a person's form can be located quickly, he will be able to vote on a regular ballot. Otherwise, he will be issued a provisional ballot, safeguarding his right to vote while allowing the county to guard against voter fraud.

Late last week, Spahr held out hope of wiping out the backlog of unprocessed forms before printing poll books.

He said state officials were to bring a scanner over the weekend to help process the forms. Poll books must be printed early this week.

Voters who don't take identification to a polling place they're using for the first time also will have to cast provisional ballots. A person who's voted regularly for years but recently moved still has to show ID at the new polling place, another reform that followed the Florida debacle.

Occasional voters, lured to the polls by the importance of the presidential election, may boost use of provisional ballots.

Spahr recalled a recent call from a woman who wanted to know whether she was still registered. She told him she hadn't voted since Jimmy Carter, president from January 1977 to January 1981, was a candidate.