A fact-checker's work is never done.
(Image courtesy of nypost.com.)
Claim #1: In Arizona, ballots marked with Sharpies were rejected because they bleed through.
Claim #2: Trump voters in particular were handed Sharpies. Their votes were then rejected.
Rating #1: UNPROVEN
Rating #2: FALSE
Explanation:
A series of tweets recently made this claim, saying, "Massive #’s of ballots being invalidated in AZ as Trump supporters were told to use Sharpies."
The claim seems to have begun with a video in which:
The person recording the video is heard saying, “What they’re doing is they’re telling people to use the Sharpies, that way, those votes aren’t counted… They’re doing it because they’re trying to skew all of the votes in there… So, people are coming here to vote for Donald Trump and those votes are all getting invalidated.”
But the video offers no evidence to support that claim. It shows one woman who repeats the same claim and another woman who appears to be hearing it for the first time.
Maricopa County officials debunked the claim in a tweet on Election Day.
The Republican Attorney General’s Office in Arizona is investigating complaints from some Maricopa County voters that their ballots may have been discarded because they were filled out with a Sharpie, a brand of permanent marker that President Trump is famous for using.
In a Wednesday letter from Deputy Solicitor General Michael S. Catlett to Scott Jarrett, the Maricopa County elections director, the prosecutor’s office requested information on the validity of ballots filled out with the markers by Thursday, Nov. 5.
A Maricopa County woman is suing the county's top election official and the Board of Supervisors, claiming her vote wasn't counted and poll workers wouldn't give her a new ballot.
Many Arizona voters are concerned that their votes might be thrown out because they used a Sharpie to fill out there ballot. Election officials say Sharpies will not invalidate ballots.
—azfamily.com
According to the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Laurie Aguilera filled out her ballot with a provided Sharpie and complained the ink bled through. She said this was the first time she has been given a Sharpie in her years of voting. After completing her ballot, she fed it into a ballot box, but the box "failed to properly register her vote," the court document said. She said the poll worker canceled her ballot but when Aguilera requested a new ballot, the poll workers refused to give her one, the lawsuit states.
At least 575 people complained Wednesday to the Arizona attorney general, prompting the office to write to the Maricopa County Elections Department for more information.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs took to Twitter, saying: “IMPORTANT: If you voted a regular ballot in-person, your ballot will be counted, no matter what kind of pen you used (even a Sharpie)!”
Also, the claim never explains how officials would be able to tell which voters were Trump supporters and which were not.
For these reasons, we rate the first claim UNPROVEN, and the second claim FALSE.
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