During the voting session which took place on the afternoon of 13 March
2013, an error led to the fourth vote of the day, the fifth of the
Conclave - which began with a first scrutiny on the evening of 12 March –
being cancelled.
Argentinean journalist, Elisabetta Piqué, who writes
for Argentinean paper La Nación, reveals this in a a new book published in Spanish, entitled Francisco, vida y revolución (Francis: Life and revolution).
What happened?
After the fifth ballot was cast and the ballot box
containing the votes of the 115 cardinal electors opened, the ballots
were counted as always before being scrutinised and the resulting number
was 116.
There was one extra ballot.
One of the cardinals had
mistakenly placed two ballots in the box without realising it: one
contained the name of his preferred candidate and the other was blank.
The mistake meant the whole voting session had to be cancelled,
without the ballots even being scrutinised.
If they had, Bergoglio would
probably have probably come out on top.
It was decided that another
vote should be cast immediately.
The mishap would not have influenced
the cardinals in any way as none of them knew what name (in this case
none) was on the extra ballot.
On the sixth ballot and after the fifth
scrutiny, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires won a clear majority: way above
the expected quorum of 77 votes.
Then the white smoke billowed out of
the Sistine Chapel chimney and Pope Francis greeted the crowds for the
first time.