Brexit: a ridiculous Twitter war has broken out over pens versus pencils

British voters who favor Brexit — Britain’s exit from the European Union — tend not to trust authority figures. And that distrust extends to the Brexit voting process itself. One poll found that 46 percent of Brexit supporters think the vote will "probably" be rigged, with 28 percent saying that MI5, Britain’s intelligence agency, could be involved.

One particular conspiracy theory has gained popularity this week: that authorities are supplying voters with pencils to help with subsequent vote-stealing. Many "Leave" supporters worry that the authorities will later rub out their votes and change them to support staying in the EU.

So some Leave supporters have taken to Twitter to encourage people to bring a pen with them to their polling place.

But there’s no evidence that the authorities are planning to erase anyone’s votes. British people have used pencils in previous elections without controversy. And ballot boxes are closely watched by people on both sides to prevent anyone from tampering with the vote.

As often happens, the initial paranoia has inspired a lot of counter-snark on Twitter. As I write this, most of the tweets with the hashtag #usepens are people mocking the pro-pen faction:

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via