Does a "dot" in the Kamala Harris box on a Kentucky ballot invalidate any other 2024 choice for U.S. president? No, that's not true: The Kentucky State Board of Elections' general counsel told Lead Stories that both the elections board and the Kentucky attorney general's office were not "aware of any complaints from Kentucky voters" about "pre-printed marks" next to candidates' names on the ballots. A statement from the Kentucky State Board of Elections outlined ways in which voters if they had such a ballot can still choose the candidate they want and have their vote counted.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) of an image of a ballot that was published on Facebook on November 3, 2024. The post's caption said:
(*update below) VOTERS,
I seen this yesterday-- Look closely at your ballot. If it has a small 'dot' in the Harris box, take a pic of it and ask for another one. Any other box filled in, will be void *ALSO- see video in comments from Laurel county.
* UPDATE: today someone reported an in-person ballot with the dot. It kicked it out several times, they had to redo their ballot. ** MAIL-IN ballots do not get to redo, it's just kicked out.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Nov 4 19:54:32 2024 UTC)
The post on Facebook did not say where the ballot with the "dot" was from, but a screenshot was shared on the @LibsofTikTok account on X (archived here) with the message, "Weird ballot shenanigans happening in Kentucky."
In response to a Lead Stories inquiry, Taylor Austin Brown, general counsel for the Kentucky State Board of Elections, emailed a statement (archived here) on November 4, 2024, that addressed the claim that a small "dot" in the Harris box means that the vote will be for her:
For this election, County Clerks have mailed out over 130,000 mail-in absentee ballots. As of today, the State Board of Elections, nor the Attorney General's office, has been made aware of any complaints from Kentucky voters regarding mail-in absentee ballots having pre-printed marks in candidate selection fields.
[Editor's note for clarity: The original statement, as it appears above, is missing "neither" before "the State Board of Elections."]
The statement explained that every mail-in absentee ballot comes with instructions that state:
... if more than one candidate choice is marked in ink, the ballot will be counted if the voter circles their preferred choice.
Brown sent Lead Stories the instructions for voting with an absentee ballot. As the screenshot below shows, they specify:
Double-check your ballot carefully. To correct a mistake:
If you used a pencil, completely erase the mistake and mark your choice.
If you used a pen, mark and circle your choice.
(Source: Absentee ballot instructions screenshot, document provided by Kentucky State Board of Elections taken on Mon Nov 4 19:59:11 2024 UTC)
If a voter's ballot included a mark for a candidate for which they did not want to vote, they would be allowed to "spoil" their ballot and obtain a new one, the statement continued. The Kentucky State Board of Elections said that they have not received any complaints about any such ballot as of November 4, 2024:
As no one has presented a pre-marked ballot to election administrators or law enforcement, 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
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be found here.
