Sharpiegate

Submission 975

Part of a series on 2020 United States Presidential Election. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Sharpiegate refers to a conspiracy theory that votes in Arizona had been invalidated by using sharpie markers handed out by poll workers during the 2020 United States presidential election. Following the circulation of the conspiracy theory, election officials stated that the tabulation machines used to count the votes had no problems reading ballots marked with sharpie markers.

Background

On November 4th, 2020, a Facebook^[1] user posted a screenshot of a "Ballot-by-Mail/Early Ballot Information" page showing a status of "Canceled" for her ballot. The post was subsequently marked "False Information. Checking by independent fact-checkers" by Facebook. Within 24 hours, the post gained over 670 shares and 240 reacts.