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| - The Kentucky State Board of Elections said in a statement on Nov. 4, 2024, that "no one has yet presented a pre-marked ballot to election administrator or law enforcement" and that this "dot" rumor "currently only exists in the vacuum of social media." Further, the board spelled out fail-safe features that would help correct various ballot issues, should they arise.
A rumor circulating online both on and just before U.S. Election Day (Nov. 5, 2024) claimed that Kentucky government officials received reports of ballots displaying a small, black dot in the checkbox designated for the Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. According to some posts promoting this rumor, Kentuckians voting for Republican former President Donald Trump — or any other candidate — might find their ballots voided due to the detection of black dots in two checkboxes.
In one example of this false and misleading rumor, on Nov. 4, a user on X posted (archived) a purported photo of a ballot with a black dot in the rectangle next to Harris' name. The user wrote of the image, "BREAKING: Kentucky are trying to hijack the election results by adding small dots in the Kamala box. If you select Trump, this will make your vote invalid. But if you select Kamala, this will make the dots irrelevant. Share this so more people know!!"
That post received over 200,000 views.
The Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) account on X — an account that had shared false claims in the past — reposted (archived) on Nov. 3 a screenshot of a Facebook post that users had shared by copying and pasting. Those Facebook posts read, "VOTERS, I seen this yesterday — Look closely at your ballot. If it has a small 'dot' in the Camilla [sic] box, take a pic of it and ask for another one. Any other box filled in, will make your ballot void!!!" Conservative commentator Tim Pool reposted (archived) @libsoftiktok's post, as did actor and comedian Roseanne Barr (archived).
However, the rumor that officials in the Kentucky government received reports of problems with ballots marked with small, black dots — marks that might invalidate ballots cast for Trump or other candidates — was false.
As the Kentucky Lantern reported, on Nov. 4, the Kentucky State Board of Elections issued a statement spelling out the facts, a copy of which Snopes obtained from Taylor Brown, general counsel for the board.
The statement noted, "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."
Also mentioned in the statement were fail-safe implementations for issues Kentucky voters might experience with ballots, should any such problems arise:
The viral social media post that alleges a pre-printed dot on a Kentucky ballot shows an image of a mail-in absentee ballot as evidenced by a straight crease through the middle of the paper ballot. Every mail-in absentee ballot is sent to a voter with an accompanying instruction sheet that informs voters that if more than one candidate choice is marked in ink, the ballot will be counted if the voter circles their preferred choice.
If a voter were to get a paper ballot with a pre-printed mark inside of a candidate selection field during any day of in-person voting, whether before or on election day, the voter would be entitled to spoil the pre-marked ballot and receive another "clean" ballot. A voter can do this before making any candidate selections or if their ballot is read by the ballot scanner to contain selections for more candidates than allowed, known as an "over vote."
The board further added, "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."
Readers can find the full statement on the board's website.
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