Québec solidaire campaign poster

An embarrassed Québec solidaire had to ask voters to please not take the party’s campaign posters literally after hospitals in Montreal reported dozens of cases of the party’s supporters causing themselves injuries trying to vote with their heads in advance polling this weekend.

Doctors said the injuries suggested some people tried to hold their pencils with their teeth in the voting booth and accidentally swallowed them. Others simply laid their ballots flat on the desk in the voting booth and bashed their head against the name of the candidate they were voting for, giving themselves a concussion.

There was also one report of a voter trying to cast his vote in blood, although it’s unclear if this was a Québec solidaire supporter or if he or she was doing that because of misreading a poster or for some other reason.

(I’m unclear if voting with blood is considered legal.)

“We want our supporters to actually vote the normal way,” said spokesperson Françoise David. “We want them to choose with their heads. … And their hearts.”

David jokingly suggested that volunteers would go around town and add stickers to the posters that say “pas littéralement”.