ReportWire

Tag: envelope

  • Do CA envelope holes lead to discarded ballots? No

    [ad_1]

    Are holes in California mail-in ballot envelopes there so certain votes can be discarded? That’s what some social media users said. 

    “Gavin Newsom’s redistricting election is going to be RIGGED,” a verified X account, Wall Street Apes, said in an Oct. 9 post. “If you Vote No on prop 50 to stop the redistricting, it shows through the envelope. This makes it easier for Democrats to identify them and throw them in the trash.”

    The post, which had 4.7 million views as of Oct. 14, included a photo of a vote-by-mail envelope. A small hole in the envelope showed a mark on the ballot inside.

    Another post from the conservative Libs of Tiktok X account made a similar claim. 

    “If California voters vote ‘NO’ on Gavin Newscum’s redistricting plan, it will show their answer through a hole in the envelope,” according to the Oct. 12 post, which had 5.8 million views as of Oct. 14. “All Democrats do is cheat.” 

    Sign up for PolitiFact texts

    The Libs of TikTok post included a video originally posted to TikTok by Steve Hilton, a Republican running for California governor. Hilton said the video showed a California voter filling in the “no” oval on California’s redistricting Proposition 50. The voter folded the ballot and inserted it into a Sacramento County vote-by-mail envelope. He then tapped the left side of the envelope on a table. A filled-in oval became visible through a hole in the envelope.

    Sacramento’s vote-by-mail envelopes have three small holes. They’ve had these for years. There are eight ways voters can insert a ballot into the envelope. Depending on how someone inserts a ballot, the oval voters fill out to cast their vote might be visible through the holes. But the holes don’t show the text next to the oval that indicates how a person voted. And the envelopes’ holes aren’t evidence of cheating or nefarious activity. 

    Two holes were designed in the envelope to make it easier for low-vision voters to cast mail ballots. The third hole gives election officials a quick view of an envelope’s contents to ensure the ballot was removed for counting. Only two of the ways voters can insert their ballots in the envelope might show voting marks. Voters can insert their ballot in a way that no marks are visible. 

    California Republicans have taken to social media to assure people their votes can remain secret by folding their ballots in certain ways.

    “Please don’t panic people about something that is easily addressed by turning their ballot around. We need every no vote and we need them now,” the chair of the Republican Party of Los Angeles, Roxanne Hoge, who opposes the ballot measure, said in an Oct. 11 X post. Hoge shared a video of her folding and placing her mom’s mail-in ballot in an envelope so that no vote marks are visible.

    On Nov. 4, Californians will vote on Proposition 50, which will determine the state’s congressional map. If it passes, California will redraw its congressional districts, likely giving Democrats five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

    Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading the ballot measure in response to Texas’ mid-decade redistricting effort, which added five likely Republican seats.

    Sacramento County vote-by-mail envelopes have holes for accessibility purposes

    Since 2008, Sacramento’s vote-by-mail envelope has featured two holes punched into the back and one punched into the front.

    California vote-by-mail envelopes differ by county, so not all envelopes have holes and not all envelope holes reveal voting marks. However, the punched-in holes are considered best practice in the state, California’s Secretary of State office told PolitiFact. 

    The two punched-in holes on the front of Scaramento’s envelope appear on either side of the envelope’s signature area, signaling to low-vision voters where they should sign. The hole in the envelope’s front lets election officials know that the envelope is empty and therefore the ballot has been counted, Janna Haynes, Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections’ public information manager, said in a video.

    It’s possible to insert ballots in envelopes so marks aren’t visible through holes

    There are at least eight ways voters can insert mail-in ballots into envelopes, according to Sacramento County’s elections department. Two of those might show voting marks through the envelope’s holes. 

    “There is no way to determine how a voter voted through this small hole,” the department said in an Oct. 8 news release. 

    The envelope holes aren’t large enough to show the filled in oval and the “yes” or “no” text showing how someone voted.

    In the county’s video, Haynes recommended that voters who are concerned their votes might be visible fold their ballots so the text is on the inside. Sacramento’s ballot only has one question on it so the back of the paper is blank. 

    “If this is still a concern to some of you that don’t want to mail in your vote, we do have 31 vote centers that will be open for the Nov. 4 election where you can vote in person,” Haynes said.

    She also recommended voters who vote by mail to sign up for BallotTrax, a service that tells voters when their ballot has been mailed, received and counted.  

    The social media posts claim that the envelope holes would allow for certain ballots to be thrown away. It is a felony under California law for election officials to tamper with peoples’ votes, including by discarding them. 

    “Our staff is dedicated to fair and ethical elections. Each employee is sworn in before they can access ballots to uphold a fair election,” Haynes told PolitiFact. “No single employee is ever alone with ballots. We have cameras and oversight in all our rooms.”

    Our ruling

    An X post said, “If you vote no on Prop 50 to stop the redistricting, it shows through the envelope,” making it easy for Democrats to cheat.

    Sacramento County vote-by-mail envelopes were designed with two holes to make it easier for low-vision voters to cast ballots. A third hole helps election officials affirm that they’ve counted every ballot. There is no evidence that the holes are being used for nefarious purposes, and it is a felony for election officials to tamper with or discard ballots.

    There are several ways to fold ballots and place them into the envelopes. Two of those might result in voting marks being visible through the envelope holes. But none shows how a person voted.

    Voters can fold ballots so the blank side of the page faces outward, and no marks can be seen through the envelope’s holes. 

    The statement contains an element of truth; there are certain ways to insert a ballot into the envelope that might make voting marks visible. But the statement ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. The envelope design is for accessibility purposes and to ensure all votes are counted, not for nefarious purposes or to rig an election. There’s no evidence that “no” votes will be discarded.

    We rate the claim Mostly False.

    PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • California ballot design prompts false conspiracy theories that the November election is rigged

    [ad_1]

    California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Monday pushed back against a torrent of misinformation on social media sites claiming that mail-in ballots for the state’s Nov. 4 special election are purposefully designed to disclose how people voted.

    Weber, the state’s top elections official, refuted claims by some Republicans and far-right partisans that holes on ballot envelopes allow election officials to see how Californians voted on Proposition 50, the ballot measure about redistricting that will be decided in a special election in a little over three weeks.

    “The small holes on ballot envelopes are an accessibility feature to allow sight-impaired voters to orient themselves to where they are required to sign the envelope,” Weber said in a statement released Monday.

    Weber said voters can insert ballots in return envelopes in a manner that doesn’t reveal how they voted, or could cast ballots at early voting stations that will open soon or in person on Nov. 4.

    Weber’s decision to “set the record straight” was prompted by conspiracy theories exploding online alleging that mail ballots received by 23 million Californians in recent days are purposefully designed to reveal the votes of people who opposed the measure.

    “If California voters vote ‘NO’ on Gavin Newscum’s redistricting plan, it will show their answer through a hole in the envelope,” Libs of TikTok posted on the social media platform X on Sunday, in a post that has 4.8 million views. “All Democrats do is cheat.”

    GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz earlier retweeted a similar post that has been viewed more than 840,000 times, and Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator, called for the November special election to be suspended because of the alleged ballot irregularities.

    The allegation about the ballots, which has been raised by Republicans during prior California elections, stems from the holes in mail ballot envelopes that were created to help visually impaired voters and allow election workers to make sure ballots have been removed from envelopes.

    The special election was called for by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats in an effort to counter President Trump urging GOP-led states, notably Texas, to redraw their congressional districts before next year’s midterm election to boost GOP ranks in the House and buttress his ability to enact his agenda during his final two years in office.

    California Democrats responded by proposing a rare mid-decade redrawing of California’s 52 congressional boundaries to increase Democratic representation in Congress. Congressional districts are typically drawn once a decade by an independent state commission created by voters in 2010.

    Nearly 600,000 Californians have already returned mail ballots as of Monday evening, according to a ballot tracker created by Political Data, a voter data firm that is led by Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell, who drew the proposed congressional boundaries on the November ballot.

    Republican leaders in California who oppose the ballot measure have expressed concern about the ballot conspiracy theories, fearing the claims may suppress Republicans and others from voting against Proposition 50.

    “Please don’t panic people about something that is easily addressed by turning their ballot around,” Roxanne Hoge, the chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party, posted on X. “We need every no vote and we need them now.”

    Jessica Millan Patterson, the former chair of the state GOP who is leading one of the two main committees opposing Proposition 50, compared not voting early to sitting on the sidelines of a football game until the third quarter.

    “I understand why voters would be concerned when they see holes in their envelopes … because your vote is your business. It’s the bedrock of our system, being able to [vote by] secret ballot,” she said in an interview. “That being said, the worst thing that you could do if you are unhappy with the way things are here in California is not vote, and so I will continue to promote early voting and voting by mail. It’s always been a core principle for me.”

    [ad_2]

    Seema Mehta

    Source link