Provisional Ballots

Raising questions about the legality of some of the ballots cast, Rep. Jim Bates on Wednesday formally requested a recount of this month's 44th Congressional District, in which he was narrowly defeated by Randall (Duke) Cunningham.

Who will compete in the runoff to replace former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) won't be determined until at least Friday, when workers finish counting the estimated 9,811 remaining ballots, L.A. County elections officials said Wednesday. The top finishers late Tuesday night were Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn and conservative businessman Craig Huey, with 13,137 and 11,648 votes, respectively. But Secretary of State Debra Bowen trailed Huey by just 206 votes. A candidate has five days after the tally is completed to seek a recount.

San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris' lead in the race for California attorney general continued to grow Tuesday, making a possible comeback appear increasingly difficult for her rival, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley. Harris, the Democratic nominee, led by 31,000 votes Tuesday evening, with more than 555,000 uncounted ballots left to be processed across California, according to a Times review of updated vote counts in all 58 counties. Working against Cooley, the Republican, is the fact that about 350,000 of the remaining ballots are in counties Harris carried on election day. Perhaps as an indication of the vote trend, Cooley's campaign aides over the last five days have been filing complaints about what they allege is bias toward Harris on the part of Los Angeles County elections officials.

It's a far cry from the seismic vote of last November, but Democrats are nonetheless bullish about a handful of election results Tuesday that they say offers more evidence that the political pendulum is swinging back the party's way. FOR THE RECORD An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Craig Huey, a California Republican congressional candidate, may have qualified for a July 12 runoff against Jane Harman. He could face Democrat Janice Hahn in the race to replace Harman, who resigned from office.

Re the Nov. 8 and Nov. 13 letters about the DMV not registering people who tried, in good faith, to use "motor voter": Add me to the people who changed their voter registration when they changed their license addresses. As I received no dinner phone calls soliciting my vote and, ultimately, no sample ballot, I realized that I was not registered to vote. When I showed up to my voting place to vote my provisional ballot, I told the person working there that I had tried unsuccessfully to register using motor voter, and he said that he had heard the story many times before.

A watchdog group filed a federal lawsuit in Cleveland to try to stop Cuyahoga County's elections board from rejecting thousands of provisional ballots until they were hand-checked against voter registration cards. People for the American Way Foundation said the board wrongly relied only on computerized registration records, which were compiled from the cards and could contain errors such as misspellings.

A ballot recount in the 46th Congressional District race will conclude today, Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever said, when she will certify results of the election. The recount, which was to have ended Thursday, was extended a day after Democrats requested a review of about 1,100 rejected provisional ballots--those cast by voters whose registration could not be verified at the polling place. The ballots had not been looked at during the recount. The recount was requested by Rep. Robert K.

A judge's order requiring some provisional ballots in Michigan to be counted even if they are cast in the wrong precinct was put on hold Sunday, the second time in as many days that a federal appeals court dealt a setback to Democrats who wanted to ease voting restrictions. A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Cincinnati issued a stay of a lower court ruling that had reversed Michigan's policy for counting provisional ballots, saying it would hear an appeal of the issue quickly.

Ohio emerged early today as the pivotal state of the 2004 presidential race, with tens of thousands of uncounted ballots potentially holding the key to who wins the White House. In a race with eerie overtones of the disputed election four years ago, Ohio was poised to assume Florida's role this time around -- the subject of supercharged legal wrangling and perhaps days or weeks of confusion over the final count.

Kasim Reed, a former Georgia state senator, held a slim lead in Atlanta's mayoral runoff election, but the tally remained incomplete late Tuesday and appeared headed for a recount. If he maintains his lead, he would hold off a strong challenge from a white city councilwoman and continue the city's 35-year streak of African American leadership. The Fulton County elections office reported that Reed led Mary Norwood by 758 votes, 41,901 to 41,143, with 100% of the precincts reporting.

With the stack of ballots left to count sharply diminished, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris continued to hold a steady lead Tuesday in the race for attorney general, making victory over Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley all but assured. Harris, the Democrat, led the Republican nominee by nearly 53,000 votes ? 4,385,438 to 4,332,596 ? according to a Times review of updated vote tallies in all 58 counties. Although the gap remains narrow in one of the closest statewide races in California history, the chance for Cooley to pick up enough votes to make up the difference appears increasingly remote.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceded the state's Republican primary to her "tea party"-backed rival Tuesday night, an outcome that illustrated voters' anger with the Washington establishment and the power of former Gov. Sarah Palin in her home state. Murkowski, who had trailed Joe Miller by fewer than 1,700 votes on election night, had made gains as election officials began counting thousands of absentee and provisional ballots. At one point on Tuesday, the margin narrowed to about 1,200.

What if you held an election and the person who was supposed to bring the ballots didn't show? That's what happened Tuesday morning at one polling place in Venice. We may live in a high-tech society, but in L.A. County, at least the act of voting remains decidedly low-tech. You step up to a little plastic booth with a paper card and mark it with an inky stylus and then stick it in a plastic tub. So when the election inspector for Precinct 9001554A in Venice was a no-show at 6 a.m. at the Venice Methodist United Church polling location, the poll workers found themselves without ballots, vote recorders, portable booths or the voter roster — only an hour before the polls opened.

This week's elections settled dozens of offices and issues but left unresolved -- technically, at least -- the winners of two races for vacant legislative seats in Southern California. It will take June 8 runoffs to fill a Glendale-Los Angeles area Assembly job and a Riverside County state Senate post.

Kasim Reed, a former Georgia state senator, held a slim lead in Atlanta's mayoral runoff election, but the tally remained incomplete late Tuesday and appeared headed for a recount. If he maintains his lead, he would hold off a strong challenge from a white city councilwoman and continue the city's 35-year streak of African American leadership. The Fulton County elections office reported that Reed led Mary Norwood by 758 votes, 41,901 to 41,143, with 100% of the precincts reporting.