Bad ballot advice could render your vote invalid
Soofia Tariq
October 24, 2024
WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Voters can make it clear to officials who they are voting for by scribbling out the other candidates.
OUR VERDICT
False. This could lead to a ballot being rejected.
AAP FACTCHECK – Voters can make their intentions at the ballot box clear by scribbling out the names of the candidates they don’t like, social media posts claim.
This is false. Crossing out a candidate’s name could result in the ballot being rejected and not counted.
Posts have appeared on social media platforms as early voting begins ahead of the November 5 US presidential election.
“Election Hack: If you don’t like the Harris/Walz ticket, make sure you really let the election workers know by scribbling their names out, it’s like getting 2 votes,” one Threads post reads.
“Just a reminder to my Trump-supporting friends who are voting by mail/paper ballots for the first time: don’t forget to scratch out Harris’ and Walz’s name so the ballot counters can’t say they couldn’t fully determine your vote to their satisfaction,” a Facebook post reads.
The posts are accompanied by an image of a ballot paper with a cross in the box for Republicans Donald Trump and JD Vance, and lines scribbled over the names of Democrat candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Experts told AAP FactCheck this is not a valid method of making voting intentions clear. Quite the opposite, it could lead to the ballot being rejected.
Lisa Bryant, chair of the political science department at California State University, Fresno, said voters should refrain from writing any messages or making any stray marks on their ballot.
“This includes blacking out, whiting out, or crossing out other candidates – all things I’ve seen voters do,” she said.
“Crossing out candidates that one doesn’t want to vote for (along with any other stray marks outside the circles on the ballot) will cause the tabulator to reject the ballot and then, depending on the laws in the state, the ballot will either need to be duplicated by election workers, minus the stray marks, or it could mean that the vote for that race is not counted.”
Dr Bryant added that the intention behind these posts seemed to be to get Trump voters to spoil their ballots by scratching out Harris.
“This tactic could be used by any party to try and convince their supporters to ‘send a message’ to the ‘other side’, though voters really shouldn’t use their ballots for any purpose other than casting their votes.”
Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, also said no election official would recommend crossing out the names of candidates.
“Ballots are designed so that voters mark them in specific ways to indicate their choices. Stray marks, especially those that compromise the paper by wrinkling or tearing it, could cause a ballot to become spoiled and uncountable,” he said.
“In some cases, election officials who receive absentee ballots with this kind of damage will be able to ‘remake’ the ballot successfully.
“A voter who crosses out names and makes other unacceptable marks is at risk of having their ballot rejected.”
The posts are also being viewed and shared by Australian users ahead of the Queensland state election on October 26 and the federal election, which is due to be held before September 27, 2025.
While the voting system is different in Australia, requiring voters to number each box in preferential order, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) said making similar marks on an Australian ballot could make it void.
“We will always admit a ballot to the count where the voter’s intention is clear, however, if the ballot paper is not filled out correctly, or contains marks or words other than numbers, it could mean that the vote is deemed informal,” an AEC spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
The decision to admit a vote to the count lies with the divisional returning officer. (AAP)
