In my experience as an elections worker in Alaska, I can assure you that 'provisional' or 'questioned' ballots *are* counted. The only difference between them and regular ballots is that questioned ballots get a second look; they are questioned for a variety of reasons, the most common being that the voter has voted outside his or her precinct and therefore that person's name is not on the register (the book that is on the table at each polling place.

It can also be questioned if the person has moved to a different address

If I am working outside my own precinct on Election Day I vote a questioned ballot although as a rule the office tries to assign workers to their precinct, in which case I follow the same process as any other voter listed: I start at the head of the line, they find my name on the register and I sign in. The next person gives me a blank ballot inside a cardboard sleeve and tells me whether it's a single-sided or double-sided ballot. With it in hand, I then enter a booth, mark my ballot, re-insert the ballot into the 'secrecy sleeve' and take it to the machine where a person is standing by to ensure that the machine accepts my ballot, i.e. that I have not irretrievably crumpled it or 'over-voted' (voted for more candidates or positions than called for, in which case it will spit it back); it does not matter whether the ballot is inserted right-side up or backward, it can read it just fine.

Incidentally if I mis-mark my ballot, I can leave the booth at any time and be issued a clean ballot. The first one is VOIDed and put in a separate box; these too are accounted for.

All of the election workers are working under oath, by the way. They rightly make a big deal out of it.

When I vote a questioned ballot I am issued the same ballot as anyone else but instead of a secrecy sleeve I'm given an envelope to take into the voting booth. After I vote, I myself put the ballot into the envelope and seal it. I then bring it to the person at the machine who drops it through a slot leading into a separate compartment inside the machine.

Those envelopes are opened in a bloc at counting time by other officials, the voter's information (the identifiers such as voter number or driver's license number or social security number are checked and it is ascertained that the voter is indeed registered to vote in Alaska (If he or she is notregistered, that information goes into a separate file and the would-be voter is informed by mail that their votes were not counted and gives the reason.) If they are, the votes are logged and counted official.

Absentee ballots are treated the same way, with the added proviso that they must have been stamped within the deadline.

Subsequent to all this, every election has a review board where all these ballots are examined.