Florida election officials warn of false rumor about ballot markings days before the state’s primary

NEW YORK (AP) — An unfounded claim that election workers will invalidate ballots by writing on them is prompting election clerks in Florida to correct the record ahead of next week’s state primary.

Clerks in Collier and Escambia counties, home to Naples and Pensacola, are reassuring voters that the warning that some have encountered on social media and in texting conversations is inaccurate and that ballot markings will not disqualify their votes.

Election officials say the claim, which has circulated online nationwide since at least 2020, is an example of the kind of misinformation that often spreads among well-meaning voters but threatens to erode trust in the voting process.

The false claim comes as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has primed his supporters, without evidence, to expect election workers and partisan actors to meddle with the results. Polls also show that confidence in election results is at historic lows.

The false claim has circulated both as copied-and-pasted text and as a screenshot of a text message shared on social media. It purports to come from a “poll manager” who recently completed a training.

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