Were Republican voters given Sharpie pens to invalidate votes? Fact Check

Conspiracies on social media claim that staffers at voting facilities in Arizona deliberately handed out Sharpie pens to Republican voters in a bid to trick them into invalidating their votes.

FALSE

Many such rumours claim that Sharpies were being handed out to Republicans specifically (though how staffers knew who intended to vote for Republican is not explained) or that Sharpies were being handed out to all voters with the knowledge that it will be largely Republicans who vote on election day this year.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. And that is because using a Sharpie doesn’t invalidate your vote. The Maricopa County Elections Department issued the below tweet during voting and before ballots were counted specifically mentioning that Sharpie pens could be used on a person’s ballot.

Did you know we use Sharpies in the Vote Centers so the ink doesn’t smudge as ballots are counted onsite? New offset columns on the ballots means bleed through won’t impact your vote! Find a location before the polls close at 7 p.m. today at https://t.co/8YEmXbWyRL. pic.twitter.com/KKG2O8rQhf

— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 3, 2020

They also issued the following video that again claims you can indeed use a Sharpie and that it works well with the automated counting machines, and that bleed-through would not be an issue since ballots use off-centered columns.

We rank this claim false.