Election officials: Don't let coronavirus scare you into disinfecting ballot
Your mail-in ballot won't give you COVID-19, they say.
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Some voters, apparently concerned about contracting COVID-19 from surfaces, are ruining their mail-in paper ballots by disinfecting them. Voters have brought in more than 100 damaged ballots to the local registrar's office, KCRA-TV reporter Stephanie Lin reports from California's Sacramento County -- and at least one person tried to kill potential germs by putting a ballot in a microwave oven.
"Don't do this if you want your vote to count," Lin tweeted alongside a photo of a smeared ballot stamped SPOILED. Lin also shared a photo of a ballot that appeared to show a burn mark.
DON’T do this if you want your vote to count. @SacCountyCA election officials tell me they’ve gotten at least a hundred damaged ballots so far from voters who’ve tried to disinfect the paperwork. In one case someone tried to microwave their ballot... (1/2) #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/tnt3Kg3TIr
— Stephanie Lin (@StephanieLinTV) October 11, 2020
Ballots sent to voters prior to Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3 were processed by machine weeks ago and are safe to handle, Lin reported.
The damaged ballots shown were not mailed in, but brought in by voters who were given new ones, said Courtney Kanelos of the Sacramento County registrar of voters. Those voters received new ballots and voted.
"If a damaged ballot is cast, it would be remade with several teams reviewing and confirming the voter intent before it would be counted," Kanelos said.
To clarify, these ballots were brought in by voters who surrendered their ballots and received new ones and voted their choices. If a damaged ballot is cast, it would be remade with several teams reviewing and confirming the voter intent before it would be counted
— Courtney Kanelos (@CourtneyKanelos) October 11, 2020
These "spoiled ballots" were brought in from the voters themselves to exchange for new ones so they were able to vote on clean ballots before casting their ballots. If a ballot is already cast and damaged in ANY way, they are "remade" so they can be counted by the machines
— Courtney Kanelos (@CourtneyKanelos) October 11, 2020
Remade ballots are completed by a team, then reviewed by another QC team to ensure the votes match the original. It is then logged with a unique identifying number (not tied to the voter in anyway) so the original can be referred to if there are any questions
— Courtney Kanelos (@CourtneyKanelos) October 11, 2020
Spoiled ballots are not remade because these were not cast, they were surrendered by the voter and exchanged, but we still keep track and secure these for auditing purposes
— Courtney Kanelos (@CourtneyKanelos) October 11, 2020
While coronavirus transmission is believed to occur predominantly via prolonged and close person-to-person contact, scientists are still studying how it may spread via contaminated surfaces. New research conducted by scientists at Australia's national science agency, suggests SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can linger on non-porous surfaces for longer than expected under laboratory conditions.