Making a mark in a modern democracy
In the United Kingdom, when you enter the small voting booth at your local election station, you are given a decent-sized piece of paper with the names of all the candidates, their party affiliations (if any), and a box for you to mark your vote against your chosen candidate. One remarkable aspect of the voting system is that all votes are marked by a simple cross against the candidate’s name using an old-fashioned pencil. A pencil is used so that ink can’t smudge and inadvertently spoil the paper by making a mark anywhere else or against a candidate you might not want to vote for.
But it occurs to me that there is a deeper symbolic resonance to the use of a pencil. A pencil has one remarkable feature over that of an ink pen: the marks it makes can be erased, leaving the paper blank. I’m not saying this is a remarkable feature due to voter fraud, which is a vanishingly small part of the UK election system — so small that it’s really not worth talking about. If anyone is talking about it, they’ve probably got an agenda, likely related to voter suppression.
No, the reason that the use of a pencil is symbolic is that it signifies to me the fact that votes are not permanent. You employ your vote for the candidate of your choice in the election of the moment, and then when the next election comes around, your last vote is not permanent. You don’t have to vote for the same candidate or the same party again. No, you can transfer your vote any way you like; it is your vote to move. This is not a single-party democracy where the ruling party turns in incredibly high voter returns election after election by suppressing the ability of others to stand. No, this is a democracy where people are free to move their vote as they think it should be allocated, and the impermanence of the vote, as shown by the pencil, is a valuable reminder of that.
In the last UK general election, that’s exactly what I did. Due to the political uncertainty in the UK over the last eight or so years, I have felt constrained in where my votes should go. In this last election, which resulted in a huge Labour majority, I was able to vote with my feelings, my heart, and my judgment, as indeed all voters in a democracy should be able to do.
Democracy is a precious, and sometimes fragile, method of government and is strengthened simply by the act of participation. And that is why I will be picking up that small stub of a pencil for as long as I can!
