Bureaucratic Blue Ink

I got my Pennington County South Dakota absentee ballot in the mail today and under Instructions To The Voter, it states "use only a BLUE PEN" (yes, the word "only" was underlined and "blue pen" was in bold, capital letters and of course, it was written in black ink). Why they would purchase a machine that can read only one color of ink is beyond me. However, not wanting to take a chance on my vote not being counted, I went out and bought a blue ink pen. As I once told my Mom, it's the government, it does not have to make sense.

Update: Upon re-reading the instructions, I wonder if they meant the color of the pen should be blue, not the ink. I am now having visions of an IRS swat team breaking down my door in the middle of the night looking for my pen.