Why are pencils used for voting?

G

Grumpy

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Was told by official at polling station that pencil had to be used.
There is potential here for skullduggery, if it is erasable.
God forbid we ever had politicians who were corrupt and dishonest!
We wouldn't accept that, would we?
Reminds me of Building Society manager in UK, a few years ago, who instructed staff to write up books in pencil.I think he told police he was going through a difficult marital breakup and needed the money he embezzled.
 
Odd one alright. The [broken link removed] makes specific mention of the pencil provided in the polling booth alright. Not sure if this is actually mandatory and/or if any subsequent amendments have relevance here...
 
Hopefully the next Government will get rid of those silly aul' pencils and introduce a modern e-voting system. It's about time we moved into the 21st century.

Hang on, I seem to remember reading something like that before..? :)
 
DrMoriarty said:
Hopefully the next Government will get rid of those silly aul' pencils and introduce a modern e-voting system. It's about time we moved into the 21st century.

Hang on, I seem to remember reading something like that before..? :)
Click to expand...

That will remove the huge cost of storing the pencils that we currently use. It seems crazy that they have to be kept in a temperature and humidity controlled environment all year with sharpening technicians keeping a regular watch on them and security guards making sure that no one breaks their tips and renders them useless on election day.
Bring on the e-voting machines which do the same job but are tamper proof and can be kept in any auld drawer when not in use. ;)
 
Worse again, if you count all the polling booths, across all the the polling stations, across the whole country, look at the amount of twine that we have just wasted on tying all the pencils to the booths! There must be miles of it! That has to be stored too ya know!

And of course, look at all the shavings from all of the pencils - I suppose that could be a renewable source of energy - enough to produce 2MW of electricity to the national grid!

ninsaga
(will be back in a mo after I take my medication - ciao)
 
I've voted at the same polling both for years and every time I vote I always smile to myself when reading through the ballot paper: "what is that peculiar smell?"- the damp and musty plywood booth, which is obviously not stored in an special "controlled environment!
 
Purple said:
That will remove the huge cost of storing the pencils that we currently use. It seems crazy that they have to be kept in a temperature and humidity controlled environment all year with sharpening technicians keeping a regular watch on them and security guards making sure that no one breaks their tips and renders them useless on election day.
Bring on the e-voting machines which do the same job but are tamper proof and can be kept in any auld drawer when not in use. ;)
Click to expand...

Priceless!
 
Apparently at the last election they bought cheap soft lead pencils. Unfortunately when the ballot paper had been written on and folded over in half ,the imprint of the number came on to the end of the page! They made for spoiled votes which had to be carefully examined to see where the indentation was to indicate the real No 1 !
 
Key word there: "apparently". Of course if you have any evidence to back that claim up it might be worth posting it.
 
The story is direct from the Dublin Returning Officer on RTE radio recently -- the type of pencil lead used in one constituency caused two 1st preferences on many ballots.
 
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