Fact Check: Are Voting Ballots Marked by Poll Workers Disqualified?

Claim:

Voting ballots that are marked by poll workers are disqualified.

Rating:

False ( About this rating? )

In August 2024, mere months away from the 2024 U.S. presidential election , a rumor spread across multiple social media platforms that ballots marked by poll workers with "a letter, a checkmark, a Star, an R or a D, a number or any writing of any kind" could disqualify them.

The most common version of the claim appeared in the form of a text message that read:

A very reliable good friend of mine just finished pollworker training and she texted me this.....Just finished Poll Manager training! I passed all the classes. I want you all to know something...if you are checking in at the polls and they happen to write anything on your ballot before they give it to you to put in the voting machine...a letter, a checkmark, a star, an R or a D any writing of any kind...please request a new ballot. Your ballot could be disqualified if it is written on. Please be on the lookout for this type of behavior.

Several readers submitted the claim to Snopes, requesting we fact-check its authenticity; luckily, we've covered this rumor before . In the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election, a similar assertion — that p oll workers in South Carolina were trained to mark ballots in order to invalidate them — gained traction. We rated this claim "False" using direct testimony from poll training managers and official government spokespersons.

What Did Official Spokespersons Say?

We checked in with various states about their rules. Debra O'Malley, a spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth in Massachusetts, confirmed to Snopes that poll workers very rarely write on a ballot, and even if they did, ballots are not disqualified at the polling place. Rather, voters whose ballots are, for instance, not legible are offered a new ballot. She told us:

There is no reason any poll worker would ever mark anything on a ballot, with the very rare exception of a challenged ballot. If a ballot is challenged for legal cause, the voter's name and address, as well as the challenger's, are written on the ballot to be reviewed only in the case of a recount or court order. Again, this is very rare.

Ballots are not disqualified at the polling place. If a tabulator cannot read a ballot, the voter is offered a new ballot. If they do not want to spoil their ballot, it is set aside to be counted by hand at the end of the night.

A spokesperson for the Maryland State Board of Elections provided a similar statement, saying:

A poll worker should never have possession of a voter's voted ballot. If a poll worker ever did have a voter's voted ballot and made a mark, it would not disqualify the ballot. It's possible that the mark could impact the ballot's ability to be scanned, but the voter would be present when the scanner rejected it and the voter would be issued a replacement ballot to vote.

The only time a poll worker may write on a voted ballot is if the voter made a mistake on the ballot and needed a replacement ballot. The poll worker instructs the voter to "overvote" every contest on the ballot and write "spoiled" on the ballot, but if the voter didn't write "spoiled" on the ballot, the poll worker may need to write it. This is unlikely to occur as the poll worker is with the voter and instructing the voter on each step.

A spokesperson for Maine's Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions told Snopes: "The State of Maine does not reject ballots because of a stray mark on the ballot."

Do Certain States Require Notations on Ballots?

Certain states require poll workers to make notations on ballots as necessary, such as in North Carolina, whose representative confirmed that a poll worker writing on a person's ballot would "absolutely not" cause that vote to be rejected, writing:

In North Carolina, poll workers must write the voter's one-stop (OS) number on the ballot. This is part of the process in NC that allows us to retrieve ballots if challenged, etc. They also write the voter's precinct on the ballot so that one-stop early voting ballots can be sorted back into the proper precincts after the election for reporting and data purposes. Early voters can cast their ballot at any early voting site in their county.

On Oct. 15, 2020, the North Carolina State Board of Elections released a public statement clarifying that if an election worker writes on a ballot, it will not invalidate it.

(North Carolina State Board of Elections)

A few days later, USA Today published a fact check confirming that "poll workers make notes on ballots as required to ensure the integrity of the election," and "those notations do not automatically cause your ballot to be rejected or disqualified."

In Sum ...

Accounts that shared the viral message in question did not provide any evidence to back the claim. As we previously reported, states are responsible for running their own elections, so it's difficult to make a blanket statement covering all poll-worker training sessions across the country. However, spokespersons from multiple states confirmed that marking a ballot does not result in disqualification — in fact, in some cases, notation on the ballot is required. Therefore, it was not true that if a poll worker makes a notation on a ballot, that ballot is automatically disqualified.

Sources:

Evon, Dan. 'Can Poll Workers Invalidate Ballots by Writing on Them?' Snopes , 13 Oct. 2020, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/poll-workers-ballots-invalidated/.

In North Carolina, Election Workers Must Write on Your Ballot | NCSBE . https://www.ncsbe.gov/news/press-releases/2020/10/15/north-carolina-election-workers-must-write-your-ballot . Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.

Woolverton, Paul. 'Fact Check: Are Poll Workers Putting Notes on Ballots? Yes, to Enforce Election Laws'. USA TODAY , https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/20/fact-check-poll-workers-notes-dont-mean-ballot-rejected/5989181002/ . Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.