BLACKBALL  , a token used for voting by

ballot against the election of a candidate for membership of a club or other association . Formerly white and black balls about the size of pigeons' eggs were used respectively to represent votes for and against a candidate for such election; and although this method is now generally obsolete, the term " blackball " survives both as noun and verb . The rules of most clubs provide that a stated proportion of " blackballs " shall exclude candidates proposed for election, and the candidates so excluded are said to have been " blackballed "; but the ballot (q.v.) is now usually conducted by a method in which the favourable and adverse votes are not distinguished by different coloured balls at all . Either voting papers are employed, or balls—of which the colour has no significance—are cast into different compartments of a ballot-box according as they are favourable or adverse to the candidate .