I voted in a Trump precinct in Arizona and can verify that we were all issued name-brand thinnest-point Sharpies, for the first time ever. (Previously, we were given stubbier markers similar to the old Flair or whiteboard pens.) I did notice that the Sharpies partially bled through to the opposite side, but I determined that the bleed was well out of the voting column area on each side so I wasn't concerned with that (maybe I should have been). What I don't understand is that every voter was issued the same pen, so won't it be a bit obvious if the precinct reports zero votes cast? A possibly relevant data point: while shifting my (tall) ballot on the surface to reach the other end, I left a blemish on the ballot text with my exposed pen. I called a poll worker and pointed it out to her, and asked whether this had damaged or invalidated my ballot. She replied that the only way to know was to finish voting and then see if the machine rejected it, indicating that it would be a real-time rejection. It was not rejected. Depending on the claimed failure mode of Sharpies with these machines, that may or may not be salient.
I voted in a Trump precinct in Arizona and can verify that we were all issued name-brand thinnest-point Sharpies, for the first time ever. (Previously, we were given stubbier markers similar to the old Flair or whiteboard pens.)
ReplyDeleteI did notice that the Sharpies partially bled through to the opposite side, but I determined that the bleed was well out of the voting column area on each side so I wasn't concerned with that (maybe I should have been).
What I don't understand is that every voter was issued the same pen, so won't it be a bit obvious if the precinct reports zero votes cast?
A possibly relevant data point: while shifting my (tall) ballot on the surface to reach the other end, I left a blemish on the ballot text with my exposed pen. I called a poll worker and pointed it out to her, and asked whether this had damaged or invalidated my ballot. She replied that the only way to know was to finish voting and then see if the machine rejected it, indicating that it would be a real-time rejection. It was not rejected. Depending on the claimed failure mode of Sharpies with these machines, that may or may not be salient.