Ignore the rumors: Your ballot and poll worker markings

At the check-in table in Cibolo, the poll worker turns your ballot over and writes on the back before handing it to you. If the rumor running through your mind is right, that pen mark just threw your vote away. It didn't.

The same claim has spread through Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Tennessee this fall, where election officials have likewise called it false. In Wisconsin, a worker's initials are actually required before a ballot is even issued.

At the check-in table

Here is what you will actually see. Before the ballot reaches your hands, the worker turns it over and signs or stamps the back. On Election Day, that signature belongs to the presiding judge of the polling place; during early voting, it is the early voting clerk's initials, by hand or by a deputy's stamp. Under the Texas Election Code, an unsigned ballot may not even be handed to a voter.

The ballot also carries a number. Texas ballots are numbered consecutively starting with 1 and handed out of sequence so no one can match a particular ballot to a particular voter. That number is recorded for accounting, including in the register of spoiled ballots. When a poll worker writes it down, that is your vote being documented, not cancelled.

The signature or initials are the marks you actually watch the worker make: they authenticate the ballot and tie it to the polling place. Apart from those required authentication marks, an election officer generally may not add marks to your ballot while handling it; the other exception is noting on the back why a ballot was rejected or not counted.

After you mark it

When you finish marking your choices and carry the ballot back, the worker receives it and checks it against the roster you signed when you checked in. From there it goes straight to be counted — or into secure holding until the tabulator is ready. No extra mark from a poll worker voids a valid ballot in that exchange, and nothing you sign or turn in is being quietly discarded.

When a ballot is really spoiled

The marking that can genuinely spoil a ballot is yours, not a poll worker's: a stray mark, a tear, or a selection made in error. When that happens, the worker flags it and hands you a clean one on the spot. You can receive no more than three ballots total — the original plus up to two replacements. A mistake by an election official or an administrative slip-up does not count against that limit; the official spoiled-ballot paperwork covers both.

The spoiled ballot itself is then taken out of the count. An election officer records your name and the spoiled ballot's number in a register kept at the polling place, then deposits the ballot in ballot box no. 4, where it is preserved.

Your county elections office

Cibolo's city limits span Guadalupe and Bexar counties, so your elections office depends on where you are registered. The bulk of Cibolo lies in western Guadalupe County, with a portion crossing Cibolo Creek into Bexar County.

If you are registered in Guadalupe County, call (830) 303-6363 or visit 3251 State Highway 123 North in Seguin. The early voting clerk is Michelle Shields.

If you are registered in Bexar County, call 210-335-VOTE (210-335-8683) or email [email protected]; the department is at 1103 S. Frio St., Suite 100 in San Antonio. The early voting clerk is Michele Carew.

At the table, the moves are simple: read the ballot before finalizing it, and if anything looks wrong — a torn corner, a stray mark, or a box checked by mistake — tell the election judge and ask for a replacement right then, before the ballot is cast. That way the worker records the flawed ballot and sets it aside as spoiled instead of counting it wrong.

Early voting for the November 3, 2026 general election runs Monday, October 19 through Friday, October 30. The deadline to register or update voter registration for this election was October 5.

For the exact rules this election, check the Secretary of State's election guidance and your Guadalupe or Bexar county elections office — not the social feed that carried the rumor.