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Kentucky election board: No complaints of pre-marked ballots despite viral social media post

Taylor Six, Lexington Herald-Leader on

Published in News & Features

The Kentucky Board of Elections says it has received no complaints of pre-marked election ballots despite an image widely circulated on social media by right-wing accounts.

The image, posted Sunday by the influential X account Libs of TikTok, claimed to show a ballot marked with a small dot allegedly representing a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

“Look closely at your ballot,” reads the text that accompanies the photo. “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 be void.”

Libs of TikTok reposted the screenshot and called it “weird ballot shenanigans happening in Kentucky.” As of Monday afternoon, the post had been shared more than 19,000 times, including by actress and conspiracy theorist Roseanne Barr.

But in a statement Monday, the Kentucky Board of Elections said between mail-in voting and early voting, more than 785,000 Kentuckians have already voted, and the office had received no complaints about pre-marked ballots.

“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,” the release said.

The Libs of TikTok post marked the second time in four days Kentucky election officials have debunked a viral claim of ballot tampering in Kentucky.

 

Thursday, a video claiming to show a ballot-marking machine in Laurel County switching someone’s vote from former President Donald Trump to Harris spread widely on social media. Election officials pulled the machine and were later able to recreate the issue once, but they said the user’s vote had not been switched.

Unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, spread largely by former President Trump and his supporters following his 2020 re-election loss, have been rampant in recent years.

Kentucky officials said if anyone does receive a ballot that’s already marked, they can ask for another ballot.

“Whether they are using a paper mail-in absentee ballot or an in-person ballot, Kentucky law allows voters to register their vote should a situation like the one alleged on social media involving a pre-marked ballot actually exist,” the board of elections wrote.

Kentucky voters can request a new ballot from their local county clerk or the office of the attorney general at 1-800-328-VOTE.


©2024 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit at kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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