A relatively new category of voting called provisional ballots could throw the outcome of close races into a two-week limbo, until the final vote canvass is held in mid-November.

Authorized by the Help America Vote Act passed in the wake of the 2000 Florida election debacle, provisional ballots are cast by voters whose registration is disputed or in question because their names don't show up on rolls.

A recent story on NBC posed the question whether provisional ballots would be "the hanging chads" of the 2004 election. Some states worry not only about how long it takes to count these ballots, but whether many of them will be counted at all.

In Utah's 2002 election, more than 10,000 provisional ballots were cast. State Elections Director Amy Naccarato predicts there will be more than 30,000 of them in the upcoming election.

The predicted increase is based on expected higher voter turnout and increased awareness of the option by voters and election judges.

"A statewide race that is close could be hanging on these provisional ballots," Naccarato said Tuesday. "It could be gruelling if we have to wait two weeks to find out" the winner.

Utah first used provisional ballots two years ago and "we got lucky" because no election results were changed by the final count. "I don't know if we will be so lucky this year," she said.

Naccarato said that 78 percent of the provisional ballots cast in 2002 were counted in the final tally. The rest were determined to be invalid.

In the paper-thin 2002 victory of U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, over Republican John Swallow, several thousand provisional and absentee ballots went uncounted until two weeks after the election.

Swallow ended the suspense the day after balloting by conceding the race. He said it was a statistical long shot for him to pull off the win.

A Tribune analysis concluded Swallow would have had to win 72 percent of the 4,670 provisional and absentee ballots.

Matheson's victory margin shrank from 2,010 on election night to 1,641 in the final, official result.

In the primary election last June, veteran state Sen. Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, waited two weeks for the tally of provisional and absentee ballots and the final determination that he had squeaked by challenger Darin Peterson, a Republican House member from Nephi.

"I was reconciled to whatever it was going to be. For me, it wasn't that bad," said Blackham. "For a whole lot of folks, it's a long old time to sit there in limbo. During that time there's not a thing you can do about it."

Blackham's unofficial 47-vote win on election night widened to a 58-spread in the final count.

"I didn't sweat much about it," said Peterson.

"But for my campaign manager and a lot of friends and neighbors and supporters, it was really tough on a lot of those folks. I had to settle them down," said Peterson. "They just bled sweat and tears."