Donald Trump Jr. and his brother, Eric, are trying desperately to push an absurd conspiracy theory that their father lost the state of Arizona to Joe Biden because some of the president’s supporters used Sharpie pens to fill out their absentee ballots and that led to those ballots being rejected by election officials.
Yes, really. You simply cannot make this stuff up.
The bizarre claim began with a tweet sent out by Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union:
AZ update: apparently the use of sharpie pens in gop precincts is causing ballots to be invalidated. Could be huge numbers of mostly Trump supporters. More to come
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) November 4, 2020
In short order, both Eric and Don Jr. had joined the madness:
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) November 4, 2020
Schlapp followed up with this:
Hey Big Tech, why are you flagging posts about #Arizona ballots completed with @sharpie pens? THEY COUNT. #Sharpiegate. https://t.co/TwwEXbtVoo pic.twitter.com/3I8b5SYDXi
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) November 4, 2020
You know how Republicans absolutely hate being called out for their lies, even though that’s what they traffic in on a regular basis.
Officials in Pima County, Arizona, quickly shot down Schlapp’s claims of a Sharpie bias:
The felt-tip pen ballot controversy burning through social media is false. Don’t get caught up in it. Arizona ballot tabulating machines can read ballots marked with a felt tip pen. Felt pens are discouraged because the ink can bleed through. 1/3
— Official Pima County (@pimaarizona) November 4, 2020
If it does bleed through, the ballot will most likely get sent for duplication so it can be read by the scanner. The image is the text from the @SecretaryHobbs Elections Manual, Chapter 10, Section D, subsection 3. 2/3https://t.co/3ANZ7oKMwZ pic.twitter.com/Kjn5H4tChL
— Official Pima County (@pimaarizona) November 4, 2020
All ballots in which voter intent can be discerned will be counted. That’s also in the manual. No ballots will be discarded because of the method used to color in the ovals.
— Official Pima County (@pimaarizona) November 4, 2020
For now at least, it appears that “Election Sharpiegate” has been averted. But with Republicans, we can probably expect a million more excuses in the days ahead.