In CA I voted in person on election day. You have to bring the mail ballot you got with you or you vote provisional. I had filled mine out at home with a ballpoint. They made me fill out a new ballot, and made me use a felt-tip pen. Not a sharpie brand - the marks were more transparent. Then it went into a bin. Always before I fed it into a scanning machine on top of a locked bin. I asked why, and was told "new technology". The mail-in ballot was clearly marked "mail in" and has instructions to use a ball point pen and fill the circle. The in-person ballot had no marking in the location where the mail-in marks were on the other. The instructions were different and specific to use only the pen provided. I saw later that the felt-tip makes the domino scanner reject the ballot so it gets "adjudicated" meaning a person gets to "determine the intent of the voter". Reports of 70% adjudication rates.
In CA I voted in person on election day. You have to bring the mail ballot you got with you or you vote provisional. I had filled mine out at home with a ballpoint. They made me fill out a new ballot, and made me use a felt-tip pen. Not a sharpie brand - the marks were more transparent. Then it went into a bin. Always before I fed it into a scanning machine on top of a locked bin. I asked why, and was told "new technology". The mail-in ballot was clearly marked "mail in" and has instructions to use a ball point pen and fill the circle. The in-person ballot had no marking in the location where the mail-in marks were on the other. The instructions were different and specific to use only the pen provided. I saw later that the felt-tip makes the domino scanner reject the ballot so it gets "adjudicated" meaning a person gets to "determine the intent of the voter". Reports of 70% adjudication rates.