Use ball point pens on your ballot, not felt-tip!
Sherry Warden
ELECTION 2018
Not all ink is equal
Absentee voters are reminded not to risk filling out ballots with felt-tip markers
When David Walter was casting votes on his absentee ballot, he followed the instructions but noticed his felt-tip marker had bled through the paper.
Concerned that his ballot might not be counted, he went to the Linden City Clerk’s office seeking advice.
"The instructions said mark it with a blue or black ink pen," Walter said. "I used a black marker pen, and it bled through."
An employee at the city clerk’s office told Walter he’d spoiled his ballot and would have to fill out a new one using a ballpoint pen.
"The question I have now is: How many ballots are going to be mailed in ... and when they start to count them, they find that because (the ink) bled through they can’t count them?" Walter said. "Since the instructions don’t say, ‘Don’t use marker pens,’ I feel it’s their obligation to hand-count them."
According to Linden City Clerk Erica Armstrong, those votes would be duplicated onto a new ballot following the state’s guidelines.
If a tabulator, the machine which counts votes, can’t read the ballot, two election inspectors with different party affiliations will identify the intent of the voter and duplicate the votes on a new ballot.
This is done when elections polls are closed and before the tabulator is shut down. Once finished, the or iginal ballot is placed in its envelope, the duplicate ballo! t is read by the tabulator and the votes are sent to the county clerk.
"It would just depend on the way it bled through, because if you can’t interpret the intent of the voter under the state’s guidelines and you’re not able to properly duplicate the ballot, then you can’t," Armstrong said.
"If it bleeds through, it’s no big deal, we can read the intent of the voter," Genesee County Clerk John Gleason said. "We would do everything in our power to make sure that ballots were accepted, because intent is an important component of our process."
Absentee voters concerned about their ballot should bring the ballot in to their local city clerk and discuss any questions they might have, Armstrong said.
GET IT IN ON TIME
Postmarks don’t count.
Absentee ballots must be in the clerk’s hand — whether you send by mail or deliver in person — by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Officials are required by law to throw out those that arrive later.
Voters may hand-deliver the ballots as late as Election Day.
For what it’s worth, U.S. Postal Service policy is to deliver all ballots, regardless of proper postage. But insufficient postage likely will slow things down.