Social Media Post Raise Unfounded Concern over Poll Worker Initials

VICKSBURG, Miss. – A social media post made the rounds over the weekend sharing a concern over whether poll workers marking on a ballot could lead to the ballot being disqualified. According to an article by the Washington Post, a post with similar language made the rounds three years ago.

A signature or marking of some sort is not uncommon. In fact, many states, including Mississippi, have a similar rule, and the practice works to help support the chain of custody.

MS Code § 23-15-541 states “After the voter has signed the receipt book or booklet, the initialing poll manager or, in his or her absence, the alternate initialing poll manager shall endorse his or her initials on the back of an official blank ballot, prepared in accordance with law, and at such place on the back of the ballot that the initials may be seen after the ballot has been marked and folded, and when so endorsed he or she shall deliver it to the voter…”

Arkansas has a similar rule under ACA § 7-5-309: (a) Before giving the voter a preprinted paper ballot, a poll worker shall: (1) Initial the back of the ballot; (2) Remove the ballot stub; and (3) Place the stub into the stub box provided.

Part of the Chain

The current iteration of the post reads: “A very reliable good friend of mine just finished pollworker training and she texted me this….Just finished Poll Manager training! I passed all the classes. I want you all to know something…if you are checking in at the polls and they happen to write anything on your ballot before they give it to you to put in the voting machine…a letter, a checkmark, a star, an R or a D any writing of any kind…please request a new ballot. Your ballot could be disqualified if it is written on. Please be on the lookout for this type of behavior.”

Other states have responded to the rumors, including Greene County, Missouri Clerk, Shane Schoeller.

”So, when you have these rumors going around the internet that we’ve heard about through our office that if any mark shows up in that ballot, that ballot will not be counted, that’s just absolutely false. That’s how we secure the ballot, making sure that we know that ballot is issued to the voter. Without those initials, we don’t know if that ballot was issued to the voter. Therefore, that is part of the chain of custody and part of the integrity of the election; we want to make sure voters know that. And they want those election judges they meet on election day initialing those ballots on their behalf,” said Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller to Springfield’s KY3.