Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Judge Guido DeAngelis listens to arguments concerning provisional ballots cast in Allegheny County yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

Confusion and frustration marred voting in Allegheny and other Western Pennsylvania counties yesterday as several polling places ran out of the provisional ballots that were to be cast by voters whose registrations were in doubt.

As a result, a reform that grew out of the disputed 2000 presidential election threatened to spawn a new controversy of its own.

In Allegheny County, dozens of polling sites ran out of the new ballots within hours of opening to voters at 7 a.m. Sporadic problems also were reported in Washington, Westmoreland, Beaver and Butler counties.

Over the objections of Republican Party attorneys, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Lawrence O'Toole allowed voters to cast provisional ballots at the City-County Building until 9:30 p.m. -- 90 minutes after polls closed.

O'Toole's order was intended for voters who were waiting in line at polling places at 8 p.m. and fearful that they might not be able to get provisional ballots.

Eighty-two voters took advantage of the order. O'Toole ordered that the ballots be kept separate from other provisional votes in case of a later court challenge.

At least two of the late voters hadn't been in line at polling places, but heard about O'Toole's ruling and seized the opportunity to vote after the polls were closed.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette David Lugar, 29, of Mt. Washington, fills out a form explaining his need for a provisional ballot about a half hour after polls were scheduled to close yesterday. He made the request in a room on the seventh floor of the City-County Building. Click photo for larger image.

One of them was Ember Magdalinski, 22, of the South Side. She said she was driving back from Baltimore at 9 p.m. when she heard about the ruling on the radio and drove Downtown to cast a late ballot.

The problem with provisional balloting was especially acute in Oakland, where large numbers of university students were trying to vote. Some waited as long as three hours only to learn they were not on registration lists and that the polling place was out of provisional ballots.

Some went Downtown to secure court orders allowing them to vote, but that spawned more confusion and court action.

However, very few left without voting.

"I waited because my vote is important," said Abolaji Awosogba, 20, a University of Pittsburgh junior who was voting in her first presidential election at Litchfield Towers. She spent her two hours in line reading "Sofia Petrovna" for a class on Stalin.

In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, requiring that all 50 states provide provisional ballots to voters whose eligibility is questioned by election officials.

If the voter is later determined to be eligible, the vote is counted. But that process can take several days and could be highly contentious in a close election.

"This is another piece of federal legislation that may have sounded good at the time," said Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.

The Allegheny County Elections Division prepared more than 15,000 provisional ballots, almost 80 times the number of used in the April primary, Onorato said.

That gave each of the 1,311 polling sites in the county about 12 ballots -- although some sites received more, depending on how many they used in the primaries.

Onorato estimated that 60 precincts ran out of provisional ballots.

The problems quickly spilled over to the courtroom, as voters who had their eligibility challenged and couldn't get a provisional ballot went to the elections judge in the City-County Building to get a court order allowing them to vote.

According to the new law, voters who get a court order must cast a provisional ballot. But judges of elections at several precincts allowed the voters to use the voting machines to cast regular ballots when no provisional ballots were available.

After Republican Party lawyers complained, a Common Pleas judge barred the precinct judges from allowing voters with court orders to use machines. Those voters were told to wait for more provisional ballots.

In the middle of it all was Joe Richardson, judge of elections at the 4th Ward, 8th District polling place in Litchfield Towers in Oakland, the county's biggest precinct.

By 5:30 p.m., several hundred University of Pittsburgh students had waited nearly three hours to vote. The precinct had run out of provisional ballots in the early morning, and the additional 22 it received from the elections division were almost gone.

But what really was driving Richardson crazy were the half-dozen attorneys serving as Republican and Democratic poll watchers. They not only had challenged 20 students' right to vote, but also Richardson's decision-making on who should be given provisional ballots.

"If the poll watchers are going to interfere any more you're going to have to leave," he shouted, momentarily quieting the dull roar in the lobby.

Later, based on GOP complaints that unregistered voters were allowed to vote there, O'Toole ordered the precinct's voting machines impounded.

Also at Litchfield Towers, an attorney who said she was a Republican poll watcher found herself going against six Democratic poll watchers.

"People are voting without being on the [registration] list," fumed the woman, who declined to give her name.

The Democratic poll watchers accused her of being "bossy."

Blithe Runsdorf, the election judge there, had used her 12 provisional ballots by noon, and did not receive more. Instead, when potential voters weren't listed in her registration book, she sent them Downtown to get affidavits from a Common Pleas judge that they lived in the precinct. Some students were given rides Downtown by a volunteer with a nonpartisan group called Election Protection, although they had to take Port Authority buses back to campus.

Brandon Williams, 21, a University of Pittsburgh junior from Scranton, said he had filled out a registration form long before yesterday's election. But after he waited an hour in line, Runsdorf could find no record of Williams' registration, and he went Downtown.

"I wanted to vote," he said, explaining why he went through the three-hour ordeal. "I wanted to exercise my constitutional rights."

On the sixth floor of the County Office Building, Downtown, election officials scrambled to keep up with requests for more provisional ballots throughout the day, sending them out with sheriff's deputies, county police or other county employees who were available.

"There's going to have to be a lot of people waiting in line," said Maureen Mayer, manager of ballots and returns.

The county had 75 different ballots, because of varying local contests for Congress, state House and state Senate. So election officials had to wait until they heard from specific polling sites before preparing new provisional ballots.

Elections officials will start reviewing the provisional ballots on Friday, a process that could extend for several days or longer, depending on the number of ballots cast.

In the April primary, about 200 provisional ballots were cast, and about 50 to 60 percent were eventually included in the total vote counts, said Mark Wolosik, manager of the elections division.

Onorato said county officials won't be able to determine why so many were needed yesterday until they review them all. "We've got to find out why there are large numbers of people showing up who aren't on the books," he said.

He defended elections officials, saying they had no way of knowing how many potentially ineligible voters would try to vote.

In Washington County, which distributed 2,500 provisional ballots to 184 polling places, poll workers could not get through when they tried to call the Board of Elections to request additional ballots -- a problem that persisted throughout the day.

Some improvised. Poll workers at Trinity Episcopal Church in Washington sent a constable to pick up additional ballots.

At a Canonsburg precinct, a Democratic poll watcher called a party colleague in Washington to hand-deliver a message to the elections board. Democrats and Republicans at the site worked out an agreement with judge of elections Margaret Koblarchick to use regular ballots, write "provisional" on them and place them in a sealed envelope if the provisional ballots ran out.

Two precincts in Westmoreland County ran out, but were quickly replenished and no one was prevented from voting, elections director Paula Pedicone said.

Butler County Elections Director Regis Young said provisional balloting was "the biggest problem we've had." After only a dozen such ballots were cast in the primary, the number yesterday was uncountable.

"I've gotten calls from just about every precinct,'' Young said.

Across the nation, reports trickled in about malfunctioning machines, long lines and short tempers. But by nightfall, no allegations of widespread voting irregularities had emerged.

"So far, it's no big, but lots of littles," said Doug Chapin, director of the Election Reform Information Project, a nonpartisan research group. "We know of no major meltdowns anywhere along the lines some people were worried about."

Amid all the lawyers, election rights activists and partisan voting monitors who descended on polls across the country intent on uncovering voter fraud, the biggest complaint appeared to be long lines that forced voters to wait hours, in queues that circled buildings and wound down streets.

The election also saw the introduction of another post-2000 creation, the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, which deployed 25,000 volunteers across the country to help scores of newly registered voters with problems they encountered at the polls and serve as a deterrent to anyone trying to intimidate voters.

Yesterday, a team of lawyers staffed a conference room on the 44th floor of the U.S. Steel Tower, Downtown, in the law offices of Eckert Seamans, where they fielded at least 1,000 calls from disgruntled voters or poll monitors.

"The phone hasn't stopped ringing," said Mark Willard, a partner at the firm who headed the Election Protection effort in Pittsburgh.

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Correction/Clarification: (Published Nov. 4, 2004)b> A Republican poll worker who complained about unregistered voters being allowed to cast ballots was at the Litchfield Towers polling place in Oakland, not at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, as was reported in this story on provisional voting in Nov. 3, 2004 editions.