Pen or pencil? Elections Canada says it doesn’t matter when casting a ballot

Elections Canada signage near an advance polling station in Ottawa on Friday, April 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

OTTAWA — Elections Canada wants you to know your ballot will count whether you mark it with a pen or with a pencil.

The independent agency says it’s seeing posts on social media claiming voters have to use a pencil to mark their ballot.

Some posts on X, the social media platform once known as Twitter, have encouraged voters to bring a pen to their polling station to avoid the possibility of ballot tampering.

On its website, Elections Canada dismisses as false the claim that a ballot marked in pencil could be smudged or erased and would not count as a result.

The agency says poll workers are required by law to provide voters with black-lead pencils, but a pen or some other writing tool would work just as well.

Elections Canada says it uses pencils because pens can dry up or leak, which could spoil a ballot.

Ballots are only unsealed when it’s time to count the vote on election day, Elections Canada says.

“All ballots are counted by pairs of paid election workers and, by law, the counting is done in front of witnesses who do not work for Elections Canada (usually candidates’ representatives),” says the Elections Canada website.

Article by Craig Lord.