IMPORTANT: If you voted a regular ballot in-person, your ballot will be counted, no matter what kind of pen you used (even a Sharpie)! 1/
— Secretary Katie Hobbs (@SecretaryHobbs) November 4, 2020
An Arizona election official seems to confirm on video that ink bleed-through from felt-tip markers – like sharpies – do impact the ability for votes to be correctly tabulated.
Elections Official Keely Varvel from Maricopa County, Arizona, explains to concerned voters that sharpie markers are preferred all the time when filling out ballots. But she seems surprised to learn that voters were actually instructed to use ball-point black pens to fill out early ballots.
As she’s explaining why that may be so, she admits that sharpie markers do “impact” votes.
*We couldn’t find an embeddable version of the video but you can watch it at this link.
Arizona voters are claiming disenfranchisement on the basis of being forced to fill their ballots out with Sharpie pens instead of ordinary pens. The mainstream media, along with Arizona state officials, have claimed any ballots filled out by sharpie will be counted.