Sharpies and ballot "curing" being applied together in a ballot count is a recipe for arbitrary / fraudulent vote counting.

Ballot handlers in any capacity should be completely barred from having sharpies or similar devices that can soak / invalidate a ballot AT ALL. Simply having them nearby should be grounds for removal if they have the potential to spoil a ballot, much less handing them out to voters to use instead of proper pens. If pens cannot be properly supplied, there should be procedures in place to properly document the issue and give absolute assurance that their ballots will be / have been counted properly.

Ballot "curing" MUST be applied fairly and uniformly. If there are ballots coming in with sharpie on them, they should be treated the same way that a ballot came in with pencil. They are either cured or spoiled together as a global policy, not arbitrarily chosen for sharpies vs pencil. In either case, they should be retained in case there was potential for fraud (e.g. someone marking over legitimate entries with sharpie to intentionally spoil them).