When voters head to their polling stations, they are going to be requested to mark their selections on the poll paper in pencil.
However why will we use pencils to vote, and might you are taking a selfie within the voting sales space?
Why will we vote utilizing a pencil and never a pen?
Historically, voters have marked their crosses in pencil for 2 sensible causes.
One is that pen ink might smudge, dry or spill over which may trigger a vote to be invalidated.
Together with this, moist ink may switch to a different field when the paper is folded, making it appear to be the voter has marked the paper greater than as soon as.
Nonetheless, there’s nothing in UK legislation that states a pencil have to be used. If a voter needs to, they will use a pen to mark their poll paper.
Watch out with making notes on the paper – every other marks might imply your vote will not be counted. In line with the Electoral Fee, for those who’ve made a mistake, simply let the poll employees know and you’ll get a alternative paper – so long as you have not put the paper within the poll field.
Can I take a selfie on the polling station?
It isn’t simply selfies that aren’t allowed – taking images usually will not be beneficial at polling stations.
The Electoral Fee says it is because it’d threat the secrecy of the poll.
Equally, sharing a photograph of your poll paper could lead on you to be in breach of the legislation and you would end up dealing with six months in jail for those who inadvertently reveal how another person has voted.
Nonetheless, you possibly can take images exterior the polling station if you wish to show you have exercised your democratic proper to vote.
Voter etiquette for the polling station
Keep in mind, it’s a prison offence to speak to anybody about how somebody has voted or is about to vote, beneath Part 66 of the Illustration of the Folks Act 1983, together with your personal poll.
The act says no particular person shall “instantly or not directly induce a voter to show his poll paper after he has marked it in order to divulge to any particular person the identify of the candidate for whom he has or has not voted”.
In the same vein, speaking about politics can be banned contained in the polling station, when you’re not allowed to put on party-affiliated clothes, political rosettes or hand out social gathering literature.
No-one else is allowed to mark the poll paper for you and, for those who signal it together with your signature, it will not be counted.
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