Makes sense on both counts :)

I am one of those with the. ‘cushy’ number. I am on site from just after 6am till 10.30pm. I do not get a break at any stage. In fact I can only take a toilet break if someone is free to cover for me. Cushy it ain’t. By the way I’m also unemployed and elections/referendums are the only chance to make some money. And believe me, I won’t be skiing in St Moritz this Xmas on the proceeds.

Nasa spent millions developing a pen that worked in zero gravity …

The Russians had no such problem ..They used pencils…

Wasn’t this brought up at the last election? I seem to remember hearing the reason for this was to do with the ballots having to be stored for a defined period of time, during which the pen could fade, and the pencil would not.

Ah well, that’s my theory of unemployed Umpa Lumpa’s being hired to sit in the ballot boxes with an eraser and pencil gone out the window….

here in Quin Co. Clare, the County Secretary’s son got the ‘ cushy Job ‘ in the polling station, in fact he always gets it , but of course there is no nepotism there now is there……

The pencil has withstood the test of time so far whereas evoting!!!

There’s nothing to stop you from marking it with your own black pen if you’re that worried.
Although, if you mark it in other colours you may start to make life difficult for the counters

I would suspect it’s just ‘tradition’.

You have to remember that many of these practices were standardised a very long time ago. It was totally impractical to have people marking ballots with pens in the days when the majority of pens were quills and required ink wells. There would have been ink everywhere and requirements for blotting paper!

In this day and age, a simple black ball-point pen would probably be a better solution than a pencil.

I assume someone in the polling station gets the ‘fun’ job of spending the day sharpening the pencils!

Anyone thinking outside the box with marker here? A permanent one perhaps

If it ain’t broke..

I have an idea…why not use electronic voting & do away with pencils on string & paper ballots? (Grabs coat, runs & hides) :-D

When I went to vote on Saturday morning there was a women handing out a yes vote information and a pen. I didn’t accept either but it was only after I was thinking how she was influencing pre voters!!

More sustainable? That’s a pathetic excuse, seriously politicians will come up with any BS. Never think that vote rigging is not possible and that your precious government wouldn’t do such a thing.

I guess there is only one solution then … make two X’s. One in pen and the other in pencil!

Isn’t it €300 they make for the day?

It only takes the casting of one extra vote to win an election

The pencil supplied where I voted was a “midnight blue” colouring pencil, no less!

So if they don’t like the answer they can rub it out and change it just like happened in the fiscal treaty!

You should always bring a black one with you to make sure your vote can’t be spoiled/changed!

Ha! You reckon our pencil system is bad!? Americans dont even need to show ID when they vote!

Dear Sir/ Madam,

This afternoon as I sat on a bench in the shadow of the statue of the inimitable Oscar Wilde, I pondered for some time, to the shrill gleeful cries of playing children on that most Joycean conundrum, “the ineluctable modality of the visible “. A solitary swallow flew, as a chill north wind blew, across the square and the sky in an instance went from blue to dark grey and small sad raindrops began to fall ever so slowly one by one like teardrops from the soulful sky; as I surmised as to the character of, or in some cases lack of, of the individuals who presided within that great Monument to Palladian Architecture of a by- gone age, sans- souci ,with its uniform columns and its aging facade, intentionally opaque . Today in the cold hard light, the sad grey brick work of Chateau D’espair on Merrion Square looked all the more austere against the dark grey Dublin sky line.

It was once remarked by the wife of a former American Ambassador to Ireland , ” that the Irish had no sense of outrage “. A damming accusation indeed.

Given the paltry, apathetic, negligent turn -out for the Children’s Referendum last Saturday; and in the dim light of its having been passed , only just , in the dark shadow of the last minute Supreme court ruling of last Thursday . Which upheld Mark Mc Crystal’s challenge to the Government’s website and booklet on the Referendum as being : “not fair , equal or impartial “.

This decision the electorate was made aware of, all be it at the last minute . So in light of this please allow me to add to the damming aforementioned accusation, the accusation of a severe lack of principle, to our sadly ever growing list of character defects.

I make this accusation , as surely anyone of principle , should have on principle , voted no. Thus obliging our arrogant , astucious , disingenuous elected representatives to elect to have a second, but this time around ; a fair, equal, impartial and honest referendum, on this very important issue.

The Principle I refer to of course is not the principal , of the massive loans/promissory notes which certain unprincipled individuals allowed to be assumed , on behalf of the Irish nation. This of course, should be obvious to anyone of integrity/principle and is simply for the benefit of certain politicians and individuals of the same hew .

A lass the principle I refer to of course is a far loftier principle which I fear some individuals have no hope of ever grasping. No more , nor no less than they do the meaning of life or indeed the right to life, or the right to die . That’s for another Referenda . These subjects I am sure, some not fair , equal or impartial individuals will attempt to mislead the electorate on.

Dwight D . Eisenhower once said : “a people that values its privileges above its principles soon looses both “. None the less certain politicians in this country continue to hold on to ludicrously bench marked salaries . In a Dáil that has statistically been show to be top heavy by at least 60% . That is, based on a similar sized economy/country , per head of capita etc. Further more, to their shame certain politicians feign to have their hands tied regarding the outrageous salaries given to the senior management of the now begrudgingly state owned banks .

Sanctimoniously , these same individuals add insult to injury by paying lip service to the issue of children’s rights. They would however, appear to be breaking the law, by illegally using state funds to conduct a ,”not fair , equal or impartial “, Referendum. As a wise man once said : “when those who make the laws break the laws , then there is no law”.

These same bumbling individuals preside as our elected representatives in a state where hitherto fore there have existed ample laws to protect and safeguard vulnerable children. None the less , the rate of child homelessness is practically Dickensian in its tragedy.”Please sir can i have some more”. Indeed.

Speaking of bumbling incompetence , a principle which seems to hold true with regard to a lot of our elected representatives and I might add senior , grossly over payed civil servants is of course the Peter Principle , which states : “that in an organizational hierarchy every employee will rise or get promoted to his or her level of incompetence “.

Please Messrs , we don’t want any more of these supposed princes of politics dancing around important issues pertaining to the well being of children and most needy in our society, as nimbly as Dickens ‘ Artful dodger. The prince and the pauper, surely everyone knows that never the Twain shall meet.

Every cynical budget cut to the genuinely, vulnerable and needy in our society , has been like another thin leaf of fine gold plucked from Oscar Wilde ‘s gilded, happy prince . When will we develop a sense of out rage ? When will we acquire some principles ? Will we pluck the red ruby from the happy princes sword hilt ? Will we allow the happy prince to loose the two sapphires he has for eyes ? must the happy prince become blind , before the people of Ireland finally see the light ?

Yours sincerely ,

Denis Doyle.

Pencil marks are easier to erase than pen marks.

Thats the best reason they can come with?Surely in todays world the people left in charge of poling stations have the ability to. ake it from A to B with the voting cards intact??

just looking at the some of the comments its obvious that an amount of readers commenting on this space regarding conspiracy theories are very selective in what they read. has any body been listening or watching whats being going on in church and state run institutions over the last few decades.
are you so blinkered to think it was only a handful of people that carried out these abuses on innocent kids.
or only a few that took babies from babies for sale.
and kept it quiet for such along time this conspiracy went from the roof to the basement of power of ever institution in this country.
from the social worker who took the young kids from there homes the people who drove the pregnant girls to the hospitals, to the doctors who delivered the babies,the nuns who took the babies on to the next stage of the journey, to the person driving nuns with babies to unknown destinations who found nothing unusual in this because it happened on such a regular basis, from the receivers of theses babies who would then ship then on to the people who would eventually adopt them that’s a lot of people who know nothing that’s a lot of people with nothing to say.ya your probably right there is no such thing as a conspiracy theory here in Ireland