History
The right of political parties to have observers at polling places is old. One of the established roles for such observers is to act as challengers, in the event that someone attempts to vote at the polling place who is not eligible to vote.
When a voter's right to vote was challenged, state laws typically allowed them to cast a challenged ballot. After the polls closed, the canvassing board was then charged with examining the challenged ballots and determining whether the challenge was to be upheld or not.
The right to a provisional ballot, as enacted by the Help America Vote Act, brings a degree of uniformity to the array of various challenged ballot rules enacted by various states.
Read more about this topic: Provisional Ballot
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