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Did the use of Sharpie pens invalidate Illinois voters’ ballots on Election Day? There are many posts on Twitter and Instagram that say this is the case.
“Voting Alert: Voters in LaGrange Precinct 89 are reporting that used ballots are not allowed,” said a Twitter account of the Illinois State. “NO sharps on the polls.”
LaGrange is a suburb of Chicago in Cook County.
In a separate video that was part of an Instagram post on November 7, a woman also insisted on using Sharpie pens while voting.
The Instagram post was marked as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false and misleading information on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
People pushing the claim that permanent markers (ie Sharpies) are not allowed in the polling booth are saying that the ink will bleed into the paper ballot, making it invalid.
Not so, Illinois election officials said.
Cook County Sheriff’s Office Communications Director Frank Herrera told PolitiFact that Sharpie markers aren’t the only acceptable way to cast ballots, most of them are good for filling out ballots. at the polls during the general election.
“Sharpie markers are the industry-recommended ballot marking tools used nationwide for voting machine inspection purposes because they dry almost instantly, while ballpoint pens and pencils are on the ballot or the optical vote scanner,” Herrera said.
Herrera added: “If it bleeds, it’s not because the ovals are warped, they don’t line up from front to back. keep the pages separate so they don’t bleed.”
Herrera said voters are taught to place multiple ballots on top of each other. If the machine rejects a voter’s ballot because the ballot is bloody, he added, the ballot is spoiled and the voter simply fills in another one.
Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the Illinois Board of Elections, called the claim that Sharpie markers were banned and untrue “a myth” and “untrue.”
Dietrich was referring to a statement released by the Illinois Board of Elections on the morning of Election Day, Nov. 8.
“REALLY USED,” the top of the statement reads, “Sharpie pens are the preferred ballot marking method for many voting systems. There is no need to worry about the use of Sharpies at the polls. It has been tested and approved for use with these devices.”
The state Board of Elections also responded directly to Awake Illinois’ misguided tweet about supposedly banned Sharpie pens.
“Sharpies are an approved ballot marking tool for many voting systems,” the board responded in a tweet.
Claims that Sharpie signs will be banned from Illinois polling stations are untrue. We set it to False.
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