ELECTION SECURITY: SEPARATING RUMOR FROM REALITY
Here is a Q&A that answers questions about spoofing the voter. The answers come from Chris Krebbs, CISA director.
Mis- and Disinformation can undermine public confidence in the electoral process, as well as in our democracy.
NEW
Reality: Election officials provide writing instruments that are approved for marking ballots to all in-person voters using hand-marked paper ballots.
Rumor: Poll workers gave specific writing instruments, such as Sharpies, only to specific voters to cause their ballots to be rejected.
Get the Facts: Election jurisdictions allow voters to mark ballots with varying types of writing instruments, based on state law and other considerations such as tabulation system requirements. Poll workers are required to provide approved writing devices to voters.
Although felt-tip pens, like Sharpies, may bleed through ballots, some election officials have stated that ballot tabulation equipment in their jurisdictions can still read these ballots. Many jurisdictions even design their ballots with offset columns to prevent any potential bleed through from impacting the ability to easily scan both sides of ballots.
If a ballot has issues that impact its ability to be scanned, it can be hand counted or duplicated, or adjudicated by election officials, who use defined procedures such as chain of custody to ensure protect ballot secrecy and integrity. Many states additionally have “voter intent” laws that allow for ballots to be counted even when issues such as bleed-throughs or stray marks are present, as long as the voter’s intent can still be determined.
