Every member of the 133-cardinal conclave will write his selection on a paper poll slip, fold it as soon as in half and carry it held aloft between two fingers to the Sistine Chapel altar, the place he’ll deposit it in a particular urn positioned there. With a view to make the balloting secret, conclave members are instructed to jot down their votes “so far as potential in handwriting that can not be recognized as his.”
Any conclave member who can’t attend in individual on account of sickness or infirmity will solid their poll from their room within the Domus Marthae Sanctae, the place they’re collected, positioned in a lockbox and carried to the Sistine Chapel.
Cardinal Jose Tolentino de Mendonca (L) walks with Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi on the Vatican, on Might 6, 2025.
Bernat Armangue/AP
The votes are then counted by three scrutineers who affirm what’s written on every poll after which announce it to the conclave, so the cardinals can document the votes themselves. If the variety of ballots solid is completely different than the variety of cardinal electors, these ballots are discarded and burned and a brand new vote taken.
The candidate who secures two-thirds of the votes is elected pope.
As much as 4 rounds of voting can usually happen in a day. If no clear selection has emerged after three days, balloting is suspended for twenty-four hours to permit cardinal electors time to mirror. One other seven rounds of balloting then takes place, adopted by one other break, and so forth.
If no pope is elected after 33 or 34 votes — usually about 13 days — then a brand new rule launched by Pope Benedict XVI decrees that the 2 main candidates as decided by earlier ballots will have interaction in a runoff vote.
The candidates themselves, in the event that they’re members of the conclave, can’t vote within the runoff however are current for it. Whichever candidate receives the required two-thirds majority of the votes is the brand new pope.
-ABC Information’ Christopher Watson
