Gambians vote using marbles

The Gambia holds its elections using a unique voting system that was introduced in the early 1960s to address the country's high levels of illiteracy. This system is based on the use of tokens (clear-glass marbles) that are cast in separate iron-made drums (which serve as ballot boxes) for each individual party/candidate. Each political party and candidate in an election has a drum painted with its own identifying colors, party symbols, and photographs.

On election day, drums are placed behind the polling booths at polling stations. After receiving marbles, voters proceed to the polling booth to vote. When a marble is dropped into the drum of the chosen party/candidate, it strikes a bell, indicating to the audience in the polling station that a vote was cast. Polling officers seal the drum with sand or sawdust to prevent other sounds from being heard. It's also worth noting that, because the sound is similar to a bell, bicycles are prohibited from being in close proximity to polling places on election day. After the voting process has ended, votes are counted by placing the marbles into special trays (with either 200 or 500 holes), a simple system that allows counting officials to quickly ascertain the number of votes cast in each drum. This is unquestionably one of the interesting things you should know about the Gambia.