STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Does a fold line or a crease in the candidate name area void paper ballots so "the machines cannot count it" in Wisconsin? No, that's not true: The Grant County clerk, where the complaint about a wrinkled ballot was reported, told Lead Stories a ballot with a crease or a fold would not be voided. She also said that the municipality where the voter making the charge was located hand-counts ballots and does not run them through a voting machine. Thus, even if a ballot were creased it would be counted. An election expert told Lead Stories a crease or a fold through a name has "no effect on whether a ballot is counted" by machine.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on October 22, 2024. It said:
Wisconsin people check your ballots.
Involved are Grant County Sheriff's Office, as are the attorneys for Wisconsin Elections Commission .
Ballots are not supposed to have fold lines or creases in the candidates name area. My clerk also told me that even in person paper ballots are susceptible to this rule where the fold lines would appear. My absentee came with fold lines in three candidates names my clerk is driving to my house to hand deliver a new ballot. 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. The machines cannot count it and this has been verified to me by the county clerk. Call your county municipality clerk and make sure they are not doing this also.
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This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Nov 5 02:44:27 2024 UTC)
Grant County Clerk Tonya White (archived here) told Lead Stories via phone on November 5, 2024, that a ballot would still be counted if there was a crease or a fold in the candidate name area. White said:
No, it is not going to be void.
White said the ballots for the area where the person reported the concern is the municipality of Muscoda, which had 383 voters on November 5, 2024. Ballots there are not counted via a voting machine. Also from White:
Their ballots are hand counted; they are paper ballots they don't run through a machine. Even if you did run it through a machine it would still go through with a crease.
"A crease through a name has no effect on whether a ballot is counted," Mark Lindman (archived here), policy and strategy director for the nonprofit group Verified Voting (archived here), told Lead Stories via email on November 5, 2024. He explained how the voting machines function when counting votes:
The scanners focus on the ovals or other vote targets that indicate voters' choices.
Joel DeSpain, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Committee, echoed Lindman's remarks, responding to Lead Stories via email on November 6, 2024 and stating:
No, the crease or fold in a candidate's name area would not cause an issue with counting the ballot. The equipment is looking at the ovals that are filled in.
The Wisconsin Election Day Manual (archived here) states that a ballot can be spoiled and a voter may receive a new one if a tabulation machine cannot process it due to an error. From page 81:
If a voter, by accident or mistake, spoils or erroneously prepares their ballot, they may receive another by returning the defective ballot to an election official. Wis. Stat. § 6.80(2)(c).
Other Lead Stories fact checks regarding the 2024 election can be found here.
Updates:
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2024-11-06T23:12:19Z 2024-11-06T23:12:19Z Adds response from Wisconsin Elections Committee explaining that ballots with creases or folds would be read and counted by machines.
