Was Donald Trump's name misspelled or misprinted on ballots in Hamilton County, Ohio, and could this result in votes for him not being properly counted? No, that's not true: An image on social media seems to show an irregularity in the "m" of his last name, but county election officials say they have not seen another ballot with a similar defect, and that the image may be a hoax. They also reassured voters that text reproduction blemishes on a ballot would not prevent the vote from counting.
The image was first posted (archived here) on X at 11:21 a.m. on October 30, 2024, by @VAisforlovers3, and then at 12:26 p.m. @8timewinner shared the picture in a comment (archived here) under a post made by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. A cropped detail of that image (archived here) was further amplified October 31, 2024, by @AmericaPapaBear. That post was captioned:
🚨🚨🚨ATTENTION 🚨🚨🚨
Ballots in Ohio are showing Trump's name misspelled!
'Trun.p'
Share this out so everyone can see!!
Always triple check your ballots!!
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Sat Nov 2 18:26:07 2024 UTC)
The comment by @8timewinner quickly received attention from Ohio election officials. At 1:37 p.m. on October 30, 2024, Verify Ohio by Ohio Secretary of State, an account "Powered by Ohio Secretary of State Division of Public Integrity," had responded under the post (archived here), tagging the official Twitter account of the Hamilton County, Ohio, Board of Elections:
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. @VoteHamCoBOE will follow up.
At 2:36 p.m. @VoteHamCoBOE responded (archived here):
The missing piece of the 'm' on the ballot appears to be damage after printing. We have not seen another ballot with this type of damage. Filling out the ballot as is will not invalidate your vote. However, if you would like a replacement ballot, please call (513) 632-7000
On October 31, 2024, the Hamilton County Board of Elections posted a five-part thread (archived here) on their timeline addressing the issue (pictured below)
(Source: X screenshot taken on Sat Nov 02 19:00:21 2024 UTC)
The announcement reads:
The Hamilton County Board of Elections is aware of certain images circulating on the platform X, which appear to show a ballot which has been damaged or altered so that a candidate's name appears misspelled. The images may be a hoax. (1/5)
We have not received any complaints from a voter about a ballot damaged in the manner depicted by the posts. We have also not seen any ballots returned with this type of problem. (2/5)
The only reports we have seen of this type of damaged ballot are those circulating online. Based on those posts, we cannot determine whether the author is a registered voter in Hamilton County or whether the ballot is even a genuine Hamilton County ballot. (3/5)
As always, we encourage voters to make sure they are receiving election information from official sources. (4/5)
Damage to a candidate's name on the ballot would not prevent the vote from counting. If a voter does receive a damaged ballot, the voter should call the Hamilton County Board of Elections at 513-632-7000 for assistance. (5/5)
At the time this was written, PolitiFact and AFP Fact Check had reviewed the same claim.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims mentioning Donald Trump can be read here and those associated with the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be found here.
