Quote:
Originally Posted by jessXIca
i've heard this before with blackballing referring to a box of some kind, what does that mean? i know what blackballing is but how is a box used?
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I actually saw the box when we ceremoniously burned it (after cleaning out a lot of really old things from our storage compartment)! The box was rectangular, and hinged in the middle, like a picnic basket. When you opened both sides, you saw a little divider between the two sides, with a hole in it.
In the one side would be all of the white balls and all of the black balls (there was never just one, only because if it was gone before someone wanted to use it, they'd already know the outcome). When it came time to vote, a sister would open up the side with the marbles, and put either a white or a black ball through the hole in the divider. No one else could see how someone voted.
Whoever would be tabulating the votes only needed to count the black balls, since they stuck out from the white balls.
When I was in school, if there was a vote not to initiate a New Member, there had to be a sort of hearing with the Advisors as to why. It was never a whimsical choice, it was something of a much more serious matter.