system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What exactly happened with the provisional ballot situation across Arizona tonight?

Keep hearing about voter suppression in the form of having voters use provisional ballots that ultimately don't count anyway. Why is this such a widespread issue? Surely it can't be unintentional if it was so prevelant tonight.
gpt
It is a misunderstanding of how votes are counted.

The purpose of an election to determine who got the most votes, not to make people feel all warm and fuzzy because their vote got counted.

Sometimes it is possible to know who won with out counting all the votes.  If someone is up by 10,000 votes, and there are 2000 provisional ballots, it is a waste of time to count them.

But not counted is difference from doesn't count.  If the election was closer, provisional ballots do get validated and counted.