In any election, a small percentage of voters will mark their ballots in a way that makes their intent unclear to either the scanners, hand-eye counters, or both. Determining a voter’s intent, and making sure it is counted correctly, is one of the most important responsibilities a jurisdiction has when administering elections. Each jurisdiction across the country should have some form of voter intent guide to help make sense of these ballots. These guides use the statutes, rules, and regulations governing elections in a jurisdiction to determine what constitutes a valid vote. As more and more jurisdictions adopt ranked choice voting (RCV), it is important to understand the new ways that voters can mark their ballots. 

This voter intent manual is designed to cover all of the various rules that jurisdictions can adopt and reference example jurisdictions that have adopted the stated rule. This guide uses best practice grid ballots (unmarked and correctly marked samples below) with a variety of markings to show the various ways a voter can cast their ballot that would need to be resolved. Each rule is explained and then followed by various ballots with a description of how that ballot would be interpreted under that rule. While these examples do not include every single possible variation of ballot use by a voter, they are a useful tool for visualizing the rule and how it should be applied.