Reply #12: true ...

[Lisa]

I haven't voted in a jurisdiction that had that many different questions not related to picking specific candidates yet, so that's good to know. A friend in California said that sometimes they get a whole wad of stuff to vote on (all those propositions). Way more than Canadians tend to get, even in municipal elections.

They told us during the briefing session that they try to encourage the voters to use pencils -- not just because it might indicate pre-marked ballots somehow being smuggled in, but the main reason stated by Elections Canada is that ink can deteriorate under storage conditions, and rub off on other ballots. The smudges could theoretically make it harder to tell the voter's intent (e.g. if they end up on multiple boxes). They used to disqualify ballots not marked in pencil, which incidentally is how Ed Broadbent won one of his first elections ... the businessmen tended to bring their own pens and use them to mark the ballot, and many of them voted for Ed's opponent.