When you’re voting at a polling station always tapping the slot in the ballot box after you’ve put your ballot paper in
There’s a chance to test-run this on Thursday in the AV referendum. It may turn out to be one of those spontaneous motor-sensory actions you just can’t help yourself doing like tweaking the backside of your swimsuit when you get out of the swimming pool. But now you come to mention it whenever you see a presidential or prime-ministerial candidate voting ( for themselves , presumably) on television news they do indeed add that little extra tap on the top of the ballot box. It is a loaded gesture with probably far more deep-seated motivation than the simple desire to check that the voting slip has gone in properly. It’s like the playful tap on the top of a child’s head which signifies approval , or that rather pointless initial push one gives a toy sailboat as it takes to the water to see it on its way. It might have something to do with this bit of the voting procedure being in public – under the watchful gaze of the polling officials – whereas only seconds earlier you were in the booth ( even behind curtain ) being very furtive and hole-in-corner about putting your secret cross on the paper , just as one is at the cashpoint to be sure no one else is casting sneaky glances at your bank balance. But the public casting of the actual vote calls for a bit of a show. Maybe the feeling is that what you are doing – discharging your civic duty, exercising your democratic rights, touching the hem of national affairs – is just far too big for the mere shoving of a scrap of folded paper into a hole to do it justice. It needs an extra flourish to add a bit of drama like clergymen waving their arms about expansively at poignant moments in church services. Indeed polling station officials will tell you that a lot of voters aren’t satisfied with the discreet gentle tap but opt for dive-bombing the slot in spirals from a great height and then withdrawing their hands like climaxing harpists .
(Harvey Brush, Ross-on-Wye) - QQQQ*
