Polling stations and pencil

[Symbollove]

Ok I am probably being odd, but why do polling stations have pencil to cast your vote, I don't like the idea of pencil can be rubbed off. Am not saying that will happen. But why not just have a pen? If I knew I would've taken a pen with me. Also the pencil I used was in dire need of sharpening, I went at 7.30am so not like an awful lot of people used it.
I can't remember if it's always been pencil but just occurred to me this morning when i voted

All the paperwork was bagged up and taken away, with the ballot papers being stored in, I think, the local Court building. In their basement, maybe.

flouncy ours have an entire floor of the local council offices, they're obviously very spoilt!

@MarySidney - Pencils can be put away and brought out again at the next election. Pens will have dried up.

@soupforbrains - Not at the rate we've been having elections lately

They'll have run out of ink by March. . .

They're not as old as my labour landslide pencils from the election of 1997

I hope these are framed and mounted on your living room wall flouncy

I took a pen with me! :)

My H is a police officer.
Usually on election night he and a few others guard and watch the count.
Now he works for gang / drug task force and dreads it every time.
He's done the last 4 but is off with flu and will miss it.
I think he would take the flu and chest infection he has over the boring night making sure nobody tries to rig the vote .
Plus they have lots of independent people overseeing it also.

(Should have added for clarity...the Electoral Services dept have the entire floor, not the stubby pencils.)

Because we haven't been running elections for years with total transparency. And because there is quite obviously a team of secret elves hiding inside the ballot boxes with a rubber to change your vote, given that they're under the eyes of people at all times.

I knew it was a bad idea to have an election in December. Think of all the elves about at this time of year!!

A bit off topic but it was really weird voting in the dark after years of strolling down to the polling station in the spring sunshine.

@MarySidney, it used to be the case that opens would dry up between elections. Not sure that's true any more! (Yes, I am suggesting from election fatigue!)

When I went to vote today there was a sign saying ‘pencils are provided but you are welcome to use your own writing instrument of choice’ (someone must have seen this thread )

Would of thought perm marker be better

As PP have said it’s probably due to reliability of pencils over pens.
But an election official once pointed out to me that it would be extremely difficult and time consuming to rub out pencil marks. Comparatively easy to swap pens in booths with ones containing fading ink

OMG!! Election supply shops? Why have I never wondered where all that stuff comes from before!

That is amazing...

I do sometimes wish that we could vote online, but actually I really that we have to go to a polling station to do it. It shows a kind of engagement and responsibility that you have to get off your butt to do it! I do see that it's a problem for some people, though; I have a degenerative condition and I know that at some point in the future I won't be getting out of the house alone, maybe not at all.

@ElBandito
If you have ever been at a count when the ballot boxes are opened everyone is watched with an eagle eye . No possibility of any tampering .

I think the they-get-rubbed-out conspiracy theorists don't use pencils enough.

Imagine trying to opportunistically remove several hundred crosses off flimsy ballot papers without leaving a sign you'd done it, like creasing the paper, leaving that ghastly dirty mark you get sometimes, or rubbing through the paper entirely.

At what point in the process would they get rubbed out?

Not in the counting hall, the ballot boxes (very noisily) have the cable ties cut off, ballots are spilled on the table in front of the witnesses, and the box held up for witnesses to see it's empty. Counters have to keep the ballots on the table in full view at all times until results confirmed.

Not in the cars or vans transporting the ballot boxes; they are in a huge rush, they don't have time to stop & rub out stuff.

Not in the polling station, anyone could walk in at any time to see the presiding officer cut off the cable ties & were fishing ballots out to remove/change. And if you changed enough, the skewed ness of the result would be noted & possibly investigated.

So not only do I not think it would happen, I can't figure out any way to make it happen. I suppose if you were a bad person you could fathom a way to sneak a small number (n < 20?) of extras in, but changing other people's would be too difficult

I do sometimes wish that we could vote online,

I think there's too much potential for things to go wrong - If there were software problems or the site crashed or there were major power cuts on the day.

I think the simplest way of doing something is nearly always the best, and I too like the process of walking to the polling station to mark my cross on the ballot paper. For most people, it's not a huge amount of time and effort, for something so important, and having to make that bit of effort perhaps causes people to think a bit more about what they're doing.

I do sometimes wish that we could vote online

This would rely on the entire electorate having access to free, fast, reliable broadband and an extremely powerful, stable website that can potentially deal with everyone voting at once. It’s not Sports Personality of the Year .

I love the pencils as love the fact they been there for years...alot of history

We can be trusted with the future of the country, but not to get ink all over our faces and scrawl something offensive in the church hall vestibule on the way out.

I drew a little cock in sharpie.