The claim circulated elsewhere on Facebook and on X.
This follows a trend of misinformation that ballots cast in contested elections can be invalidated or wrongly counted.
But the state’s top election body said the claim is false.
“No, the crease or crease in a candidate’s name would not cause a problem in vote counting,” the Wisconsin Elections Commission said in a statementemail dated October 25.
“The equipment looks at the ovals that have been filled in,” the Commission told AFP.
The Wisconsin Election Day Manual includes instructions for allowing voters to spoil a ballot and receive a new ballot if a tabulation machine cannot process it due to an error (archived here).
Mark Lindman, policy and strategy director for the nonprofit Verified Voting (archived here), also said it was acceptable for the ballots to be folded into those parts of the ballot.
“Vote counting software focuses on the ovals voters fill in to mark their vote, not the pre-printed text,” Lindman said in a Nov. 1 email. “And several procedures help ensure that mail-in ballots are counted correctly.”
During the 2020 election, problems with voting machines incorrectly scanning folded ballots led to a recount in the state of New Hampshire. But the problems stemmed from creases in a candidate’s corresponding oval, not their name.
AFP has debunked other claims about the 2024 US election here.
