Gambians Vote With Marbles

Posted on Sep 22, 2006

Chief electoral officer Kawsu Ceesay told a BBC interviewer: “The system also makes the counting process much more transparent.”

Check out the Gambian voting system. It’s enviably simple: “Voters enter a booth and pop a clear glass marble into one of three drums representing the candidates.” The marble hits a bell on its way down, preventing people from voting more than once. No hanging chads, no hacking, just a satisfying plunk when your vote goes in.  Are we advocating marbles? No, but a paper trail would be good.

BBC:
Voters enter a booth and pop a clear glass marble into one of three drums representing the candidates, instead of a putting a ballot paper into a box.

As the marble falls into the drum, it hits a bell so officials can tell if anyone votes more than once.

“It’s a unique system introduced in 1965 because of Gambia’s high illiteracy,” Gambia’s chief electoral officer Kawsu Ceesay told the BBC.

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