42 Comments - Sir Reel - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:06 am: Everyone should know that only His Orangeness is allowed to use Sharpies. - Big Dipper - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:08 am: Regarding electioneering, I believe the distance is measured from the door of the room where voting is occurring, not the main door to the building. - Torco Sign - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:15 am: Showing a candidate with her lit doesn’t mean there’s electioneering lol. Who falls for this garbage? - Dirksen - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:16 am: The whole “Awake” crew defines amateur hour. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:18 am: Anything to sow doubt. America runs fair and free elections, we are *not*, and haven’t been before 2015, a third world banana republic… we send monitors to fledgling democracies because we are the gold standard. Do not listen to those wanting to undermine elections. - Roadrager - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:26 am: Our candidates only lost because of the grand conspiracy by Dominion, Smartmatic, and Office Depot. Really dispiriting that these people are going to be in charge of both houses of Congress come January. - low level - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:28 am: If it was Farmer Bailey or Sue them DeVore, they’d have no problem with electioneering there. Since its a Democrat, its a problem. - Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:29 am: The Awake crowd will complain and won’t truly be happy until they alone get to decide who is on the ballot and who gets to vote. - Amalia - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:30 am: Awake thinks we are not. We are. We see you. - MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:34 am: “Regarding electioneering, I believe the distance is measured from the door of the room where voting is occurring, not the main door to the building.” As with so many things, the election judges on site determine where the line is. And as long as it’s the same for everybody, I’ve never seen a reason to get overly excited about it. – MrJM - Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:35 am: -Our candidates only lost because of the grand conspiracy by Dominion, Smartmatic, and Office Depot.- U-Line pens are totally fine though. - cermak_rd - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:38 am: I am now confused. I voted early in Cook County a couple Fridays ago and we used these nice touch screen machines. Why are people marking things with a pen? Are the machines not available on election day? Or are there not enough of them for election day? Or do some counties choose paper and pen as their method? - greykitty - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:44 am: DuPage County has a nifty new system since the primary, with paper ballots printed on demand, then scanned by the voter in the machine. I do kind of miss the old computer screens as I was diligently trying to color the entire box but not outside the lines with the ballpoint pen I was handed. I am a big fan of being able to vote at any polling place in the county, though. https://www.dupagecounty.gov/Election/Election_Commission_News/2021/65633/ https://www.dupagecounty.gov/Election/Election_Commission_News/2021/65633/ - Big Dipper - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:45 am: They don’t have enough touch screen machines yet so typically they have just one per precinct. Early voting locations have many. - Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:46 am: -Or do some counties choose paper and pen as their method?- Different counties have different methods. My Cook Co precinct this am had paper/pen and electronic options. - Socially DIstant watcher - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:49 am: @cermak_rd:. If you vote early, you get a touch screen, because early voting locations can’t keep enough paper ballots for every precinct. If you vote in precinct, you get a choice of paper ballot or touchscreen. - Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:50 am: Look at all the doofus twitter types telling the State Board of Elections they are wrong. Such confidence. - JoanP - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 10:55 am: = If you vote in precinct, you get a choice of paper ballot or touchscreen. = Only paper ballots in my precinct. I honestly don’t care for the Sharpies. They do bleed through, and it made a random mark on my judicial ballot, so I had to do it all over again. - low level - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 11:02 am: Twitter has marked the post as misleading and shut down comments. Very good, Elon. - Publius - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 11:17 am: How much money is Awake taking from Putin? - Angry Chicagoan - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 11:19 am: I voted this morning in Chicago, and we had Sharpies. Unfortunately they were soaking through the ballot paper and causing some read issues. Sounded like they were in search of some different pens. - JoanP - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 11:25 am: @ Angry Chicagoan - There must have been a similar issue where I voted, because they were warning us to mark the ballot “lightly”. - Lagertha's Shield - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 11:28 am: My precinct has always used paper ballots. They had ballpoint pens this morning. - Frayedcat - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 12:03 pm: We had ink pens in the City of Peoria. We just moved from machines to paper ballots that are then scanned. The poll workers at my precinct on the East Bluff said they found the new ballots easier. We used them in the Primaries - ArchPundit - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:25 pm: ===Or do some counties choose paper and pen as their method? Other have answered this well, but I will make the point that the optical scan are the most reliable if you have a choice. They are also the easiest in recounts. ===They don’t have enough touch screen machines yet so typically they have just one per precinct. Early voting locations have many. I would say that touchscreens are falling out of favor as they tend to be more complicated and are less accurate according to the research. They do have advantages for some with disabilities though. The bottom line–use optical scan if you have a choice. - IL Progressive - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:39 pm: I have to give Elon credit for not doing away with the election misinformation label and prohibiting it from being shared on commented on. I thought he was going to get rid of them…looks like I may have been wrong. - thisjustinagain - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:03 pm: I hope wherever they use Sharpies they use the finer-point kind, not the standard ones; the finer ones bleed through less (I wrote a note to self with a finer one to test this on rather cheap paper). - Melido Perez - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:05 pm: Awake and their followers are bringing their own pens to the polls because they believe sharpies are being provided so their votes won’t count. Won’t it be something if these idiots mess up their ballots by bringing the wrong pens? - Chipolljudge - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:15 pm: @JoanP and @angrychicagoan While I won’t say it is impossible, I will say front to back bleed thru on the same ballot/sheet causing an issue is unlikely. What can be an issue is bleed thru when people stack two ballots on top of each other and it bleeds thru from ballot A to ballot B. Or sometimes people will make small stray marks on the front without even realizing it and when it says “stray marks” they think it is the bleed thru from front to back. Unfortunately not all judges are as well informed as they should be. - Vote Mechanic - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:17 pm: Sharpies are perfectly fine to use. The only problem that could occur is if the ballot is not properly aligned on the back of the ballot and a bleed through hits a oval for another race. This is very rare and easy to spot. Not sure where the sharpie fear started, but it is common in this political climate anymore I guess. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:40 pm: Used the Google and according to Snopes the sharpies are ok: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sharpies-ballots-la-grange-illinois/ But, who knows? - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:40 pm: ===But, who knows? === Why even both with Snopes when we have the Illinois State Board of Elections’ statement? C’mon. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:42 pm: ===But, who knows?=== Illinois SBE? Maybe? ===If you’re given a felt-tip pen today while voting, don’t be concerned. Many voting systems prefer them as a ballot marking device=== It’s known. It’s *KNOWN* (Sigh) - Lurker - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 4:20 pm: What if I I used a not-so-sharpie when I voted? Does it still count? - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 5:55 pm: =Why even both with Snopes when we have the Illinois State Board of Elections’ statement?= Because lately, I believe none of what I hear and believe half of what I see? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 6:09 pm: ===Because lately, I believe none of what I hear and believe half of what I see?=== Then facts might never help you? - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 6:24 pm: =Then facts might never help you?= I just don’t understand how a ballot can be accurately read when the ink soaks through the paper to the other side. Scientific shortcomings on my side, perhaps. But it just makes no sense. To me. It would help if they explained the science behind it more thoroughly. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 6:26 pm: ===I just don’t understand=== Yeah. Usually my favorite aunt rescues me when this part starts. Since she’s not here, I wish you the best with everything. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 6:47 pm: And it would have been helpful if I had noticed that second notice came from the Illinois State Board of Elections. - PF Flyer - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 7:00 pm: I wish they’d clear up this Sharpie thing once and for all. I tried vote by mail for the first time in 2020. Instruction illustrations showed a definite Sharpie pen being used, without the brand name. It bled through that porous paper so badly I had a vertical row of very well-defined black circles on the flip side, directly across from the circles I was supposed to fill in on that side. I too a picture of it and emailed it to the Cook County Clerk’s office, asking who’s bright idea that was. I was told to bring that messed up ballot to the polling place, turn it in as VOIDED and vote in person, which I did. This is no conspiracy theory, it happened. Was it because my Sharpie was brand new and fully loaded? Did the have a run of bad paper? I have no idea. This year my ballot never arrived (I’ve had a few mail issues in the past couple of months) and I early voted in person again. Try again next year… - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 7:03 pm: ===I wish they’d clear up this Sharpie thing once and for all.=== They did. Today. Above. From SBE - Joe - Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 9:03 pm: Anybody see any of the hundreds of poll watchers B was going to bus to Chicago? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.