Folds will not cause tabulation machines to reject Wisconsin votes

"Wisconsin people check your ballots," warns a Facebook user describing concerns about the ballot he received in an October 22, 2024 post. 

"If you have an absentee check it! If you vote in person on paper ensure there are no candidates where the ballot would be folded in thirds or half," it says while sharing a photo of a Wisconsin ballot with a fold running through the section listing candidates for the US Senate. "The machines cannot count it and this has been verified to me by the county clerk."

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Screenshot of a Facebook post taken October 30, 2024

The claim circulated elsewhere on Facebook and on X.

It follows a trend of misinformation that ballots cast in the contentious election may be invalidated or improperly counted. 

But the top election body in the state said the claim is false.

"No, the crease or fold in a candidate's name area would not cause an issue with counting the ballot," the Wisconsin Elections Commission said in an October 25 email. 

"The equipment is looking at the ovals that are filled in," the Commission told AFP.

The Wisconsin Election Day Manual lays out instructions to provide voters the opportunity to spoil a ballot and receive a new one if a tabulation machine cannot process it due to an error (archived here). 

Mark Lindman, policy and strategy director for the nonprofit group Verified Voting (archived here), also said that it was acceptable for the ballots to be folded in those areas of the ballot. 

"Vote counting software focuses on the ovals that voters fill in to mark their votes, not on the preprinted text," Lindman said in a November 1 email. "And several procedures help ensure that mail ballots are counted correctly."

During the 2020 election, issues with voting machines incorrectly scanning folded ballots led to a recount in the state of New Hampshire. But the problems stemmed from creases over a candidate's corresponding oval, not their name.

AFP has debunked other claims about the 2024 US election here.