Spoiled ballot
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A spoiled ballot is a ballot that has been marked incorrectly and is not counted by election officials. Spoiled ballots can happen for any number of accidental or deliberate reasons, such as being torn, soiled, or marked in any that would identify the voter. A spoiled ballot never makes it into the ballot box. This differs from a rejected ballot, which is a ballot that makes it into the ballot box but is rejected for being improperly marked, such as undervoting or overvoting, or not marked at all.[1]
For in-person voting, should a voter accidentally make an incorrect mark or damage their ballot, they are able to turn it in for a new ballot, with the initial ballot being spoiled. In states where a voter may change his or her vote after casting an absentee/mail-in ballot, the initial ballot is spoiled and the new vote is counted instead.[2] In states that allow for the correction of absentee/mail-in ballots in the event of a signature mismatch, that ballot is not considered spoiled.[3] Other than these two exceptions, an absentee/mail-in ballot that has been spoiled in any manner will not be counted.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ The Electoral Knowledge Network, "Separating Spoiled/Rejected Ballots,” accessed October 20, 2020
- ↑ Business Insider, "If you voted early and changed your mind, you can switch your choice in these 3 states — here's how," November 4, 2016
- ↑ NCSL, “VOPP: Table 15: States That Permit Voters to Correct Signature Discrepancies,” accessed October 22, 2020
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