Voting with pencil??

Is it normal to mark the ballot paper in this borough with pencil??

Given the level of problems with the voting system and being such a close election for mayor I was bemused that I was provided with a pencil.

Rather easy for someone to change my vote, so I asked a for pen. I might as wel been from Mars when I asked for that but the helpful staff did provied me with one.

I don't think I have ever voted with a pen, always a pencil.

usually blunt - so you can't harm anyone!

The election staff are very good on issues around ballot security. The presiding officer has to protect the ballot box at all costs, and can't leave the building where the box is, which is hard work when they have to be there from 6am to 10pm, plus take it to the count afterwards.

Yes, it is normal.

Zoe wrote:

The election staff are very good on issues around ballot security.

I, too, was surprised to be given a pencil. But I question how much "ballot security" there is when there is no requirement for voters to provide identification confirming they are the person named on the ballot form. This is a yawning gap in the electoral process.

deek wrote:

Zoe wrote:

The election staff are very good on issues around ballot security.

I, too, was surprised to be given a pencil. But I question how much "ballot security" there is when there is no requirement for voters to provide identification confirming they are the person named on the ballot form. This is a yawning gap in the electoral process.

Not a very big one. If you vote pretending to be someone else, that will be noticed when they come to vote later, and resolved at the count. If they don't vote in that election, the marked register will show that they did, and an odd result with lots of people who are usually non-voters turning out would ring alarm bells and trigger an investigation.

"If" they come to vote later. There could be very many reasons a person that's registered to vote might not show up - holiday, moved away, deceased - but are still registered on the roll.

Would these also be captured and trigger investigations?

I've moved here from a country where you must bring photo id and your registration card. It's not a big thing to ask, and much simpler than conducting investigations after the fact.

Voting with a pencil is silly, but dialling a rotary phone with a pencil is the height of glamour. I imagine Jackie Rokotnitz doing it when she rings the regeneration people. She also snaps off her clip-on earring before she puts the receiver to her ear, like Anne Bancroft in The Graduate.

Whilst simultaneously shaking loose her hair and throwing back her head in a deliciously seductive fashion?