Kentucky election officials refute ballot invalidation claims

"Weird ballot shenanigans happening in Kentucky. If your ballot has any markings in any other boxes, make sure to ask for a new ballot or it could potentially be deemed inadmissible," says a November 3, 2024 X post from Libs of TikTok, an account that has previously shared misinformation.

The post includes a screenshot from a Facebook page sharing an image of the Kentucky ballot with the message: "VOTERS, I seen this yesterday-- Look closely at your ballot. If it has a small 'dot' in the Camilla (sic) box, take a pic of it and ask for another one.  Any other box filled in, will be void."

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Screenshot from X taken November 4, 2024

The same claim has circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Gettr. Several public figures, including actress Roseanne Barr and conservative influencer Tim Pool, amplified it. 

Misinformation about ballots being invalidated has spread widely in the days leading up to the US election between Vice President Harris and former president Donald Trump.

A keyword search for the text in the screenshot reveals it comes from a November 3 Facebook post claiming voters reported "several" instances where the dot appears on both in-person and mail-in ballots. 

However, the Kentucky Board of Elections said in a November 4 statement that officials have not received any complaints about ballots with pre-printed dots (archived here).

"The claim that at least one ballot may have had a pre-printed mark in Kentucky currently only exists in the vacuum of social media," the board said.

Secretary of State Michael Adams also rejected the assertion of multiple complaints about ballots with marks in a post on X (archived here).

A sample version of the same type of ballot seen online shows no dot in the box next to Harris's name (archived here).

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Screenshot of a Kentucky sample ballot taken November 4, 2024, with elements highlighted by AFP

The Kentucky Board of Elections statement says the ballot shown in the posts is mail-in or absentee because it has a crease in the center, and that voters are entitled to receive a new one if theirs has any pre-printed mark in the box next to a candidate's name.

Michon Lindstrom, a spokesperson for the Kentucky secretary of state, told AFP ballot-counting machines would reject a vote with a dot in the box for Harris and a mark in the box for another candidate. However, the voter would be free to "spoil" that ballot and fill out a new one.

Lindstrom added that if officials received a mail-in ballot which appeared to have marks next to two candidates for the same office, the scanner would read that as an "overvote" requiring human review. 

However, if one box was completely filled in, while the other had a tiny dot, the county board of elections would be able to determine clear voter intent and "can fill out a new ballot reflecting that vote," Lindstrom said in a November 4 email.

A spokesperson for Hart InterCivic, the company that produces the ballot-counting machines used to process the type of ballot shown in the posts, said their devices would detect two marks in two different boxes and not record any choice. The machine would then give voters options to either return the unrecorded ballot and get a new one from a poll worker or submit their ballot with the two marks, which will not be counted.

"The voter can select either of these options by touching their choice on the scanner's touchscreen," the spokesperson said in a November 4 email. "After the voter makes their choice and the ballot is either returned to the voter or recorded as-is, the scanner returns to the state where it's ready to receive the next ballot."

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