...with no Pope.
Black smoke signals that no Pope was elected today.
I know there was a possibility, but not a certanty of a ballot today. Does anybody know if the black smoke necessarily means they voted and failed to elect someone, or if it could possibly mean that they simply decided not to vote today?
The consensus here in Rome is that if they hadn't voted they would simply have headed back to the Casa S. Marta without any smoke coming from the chimney. The fact that the smoke came out at just after 8pm indicates that they did take the time to vote.
Since the smoke is from the used ballots (with chemicals added), I would think that means they actually cast ballots today.
That's what I thought, nice to have confirmation, Zadok.
Brandon, yeah that's what I was thinking, but with all the talk about back-up stoves ans special chemicals, I wasn't sure.