Claim that Sharpie pens ruin Arizona ballots misses the mark
By: By BEATRICE DUPUY, Associated Press
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Claim that Sharpie pens ruin Arizona ballots misses the mark
© Provided by Associated Press Maricopa County elections officials count ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, at the Maricopa County Recorders Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
© Provided by Associated Press Maricopa County elections officials count ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, at the Maricopa County Recorders Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
In what's come to be known as #Sharpiegate, social media posts suggest that election officials in Maricopa County provided voters with Sharpie pens, which interfered with ballots being recorded, specifically those for President Donald Trump.
Arizona election officials say that voting with a Sharpie would have no impact on the votes being recorded by tabulation machines, and if there was an issue, there is a process that would keep the ballots from being canceled out.
Here’s a look at the facts:
CLAIM: Votes were eliminated in Arizona because people were made to use Sharpie pens to mark their ballots. This caused the tabulation machine to cancel the vote.
THE FACTS: As Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential vote in Arizona, social media posts circulated falsely suggesting that votes for Trump were canceled because people were told to use Sharpies to fill out their ballots.
Arizona election officials confirmed that Sharpies were used in voting, but they said that would not invalidate a ballot. The Maricopa County Elections Department tweeted on Election Day that voting centers use Sharpies so that ink does not smudge when ballots are counted.
© Provided by Associated Press Maricopa County elections officials count ballots behind boxes of counted ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, at the Maricopa County Recorders Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
“New offset columns on the ballots means bleed through won’t impact your vote!” they tweeted in an informational video.
One video with more than 821,000 views showed a woman speaking about how four different polling places were using Sharpies and a man asks her if “those ballots are not being counted” and “are invalid.”
“They are invalidating votes is what they are doing,” the man says. He went on to suggest voters use a ballpoint pen instead.
“People are coming here to vote for Donald Trump, and all those votes are getting invalidated,” he says in the video.
Sophia Solis, public information officer for the Arizona Secretary of State, said in an email that votes would not be canceled if there was an issue with the ballot.
“If a voter’s ballot is listed as canceled, it usually means the voter made an additional ballot request if they needed to have their original ballot replaced,” Solis said. “Depending on when they returned their replacement ballot, that ballot is most likely still being processed by the county.”
© Provided by Associated Press Maricopa County elections officials count ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, at the Maricopa County Recorders Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
According to the state’s election procedures manual, a ballot review board duplicates ballots that cannot be read by the machine in cases where they are damaged or smudged with ink.
Videos making the false claim about Sharpies were also widely shared on TikTok. TikTok said the claims on invalidated ballots violated its policy against misleading information around the elections and would be removed. Facebook said it has blocked the Sharpiegate hashtag on its platform and pointed to fact checks on the matter by its outside fact-checkers, including The Associated Press.
While election officials took to social media to debunk the Sharpie rumors, others in Arizona were not convinced.
Republican Congressman Paul Gosar added his voice to the Sharpie claims Wednesday with a tweet that said he was reaching out to the state attorney general’s office.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office sent a letter to Maricopa County election officials Wednesday demanding answers about which voting centers used the Sharpies and how many votes were rejected because of issues with the Sharpie ink.
A woman in the Phoenix area filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging vote tabulation equipment was unable to record her ballot because she completed it with a county-issued Sharpie pen. The lawsuit alleged Laurie Aguilera asked poll workers for a new ballot, but they refused her request.
She is seeking a court order that all Maricopa County voters whose ballots were rejected as a result of using a Sharpie be given a chance to fix their ballots. Aguilera also is asking for such voters to be able to be present while election officials count their ballots.
The Maricopa County Elections Department had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.
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AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco and Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this story.
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What ridiculous desperate accusation will we hear next from the Trumpsters? I would not be surprised if they will say that THIS GUY had a hand in defeating their lord and master...
I called about bleed through on my TX ballot and they told me that the second page was made to not line up with he first and the bleed
trough was not a problem so they would not replace the ballot. ( I used ball point blue ink pen to finish the second page )
That's not to say I know for sure my ballot was counted. They don't have a snappy tracking system like FL.
If a vote is not counted they are supposed to let you know within 10 days that your vote was cancelled -
Texas does not have a option to cure a vote.
One thing I would love to see regardless of this weeks outcome
Is a uniform national system like Florida.
This 50 plus different ways to leave your brother behind is for the byrds.......
I think Canada's system is even better, and any system that uses computers, internet and/or electronic technology is asking for trouble, notwithstanding efficiency.