What is a provisional ballot and what’s happening in Pennsylvania?

As Election Day unfolds, election officials in Pennsylvania are expecting to handle a lot of provisional ballots.

Here’s what they are and why it’s happening.

What are provisional ballots?

A provisional ballot is a safeguard that allows voters to cast their vote even if there are questions about their eligibility at the polling place.

These ballots are set aside and only counted once election officials verify the voter’s eligibility.

Common reasons for provisional ballots are: The voter’s name doesn’t appear on voter rolls; the voter doesn’t have proper ID; the voter requested a mail-in ballot, but wants to vote in person without surrendering the mail-in ballot.

It’s that last reason that is contributing to more requests for provisional ballots today.

Why are Pa voters using provisional ballots?

In Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that’s likely to carry the day for either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, many voters asked for an opt-in vote-by-mail ballot.

But some are going to the polls today after learning their mail-in ballot was rejected for some reason — such as missing secrecy envelopes or incorrect signatures — or because they never returned the ballot.

A Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling last month required election officials let voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected vote on a provisional ballot.

In the 2020 presidential election, officials tossed roughly 21,000 mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania because of errors on them.

This weekend, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans seeking to block the counting of provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: What’s happening with provisional ballots in Pennsylvania?