Florida election officials warn of false rumor about ballot markings days before the state’s primary

NEW YORK (AP) — An unfounded claim that election workers will invalidate ballots by writing on them is prompting election clerks in Florida to correct the record ahead of next week’s state primary.

Clerks in Collier and Escambia counties, home to Naples and Pensacola, are reassuring voters that the warning that some have encountered on social media and in texting conversations is inaccurate and that ballot markings will not disqualify their votes.

Election officials say the claim, which has circulated online nationwide misinformation that often spreads among well-meaning voters but threatens to erode trust in the voting process.

The false claim comes as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has primed his supporters, without evidence, to expect election workers and partisan actors to meddle with the results. Polls also show that confidence in election results is at historic lows.

The false claim has circulated both as copied-and-pasted text and as a screenshot of a text message shared on social media. It purports to come from a “poll manager” who recently completed a training.

“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,” the misleading warning reads. “Your ballot could be disqualified if it is written on.”

That verbatim claim has spread online and been debunked over the years in several states, including Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

Depending on the jurisdiction, there can be legitimate reasons why an election worker might mark a ballot.

A recent fact-check from the North Carolina State Board of Elections explains that election workers in some of that state’s counties write voter precincts on ballots during early voting so they can be properly sorted after the election.

Election workers in the state also write a number on mail or early in-person ballots, the fact-check explains. The number allows the ballot to be removed from the count if there is a successful voter challenge.

In Florida, election workers are trained not to mark ballots. But even if they did, it shouldn’t invalidate the vote, said Escambia County Clerk Robert Bender.

“We’ve had people write paragraphs to us on their ballot,” Bender said. “Our scanners are looking for marks in certain areas. And so, if there’s a mark in a bubble, then that’s how the vote gets assigned to the voters.”

He said when voters in his county get their ballot, they fill it out and take it directly to the tabulator that counts it. They can watch whether their vote gets counted and understand why — a process he hopes engenders trust.

Bender said he became aware of the false claim when his own poll workers started asking questions about it. He said he may not have been so proactive about combating the false claim if it were spreading in May or June, but with a state primary next week, “we want to reassure the voters of the integrity of the system and that we strive to make sure their vote gets counted.”

Collier County, home to Naples, also has issued guidance warning voters about the falsehood and urging them to contact their local election supervisor for accurate voting information.

“Your local elections office should be your trusted information source,” Bender said. “They’re here to serve the voters. And they can let you know what’s going on.”

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