The main focus of Achebe in ‘The Voter’ is the satirisation of money politics and the contagious nature of **. Roof, the protagonist of the story, is an energetic young man of Umuofia, who has come back to his village giving up a bright future in the city. People believe that he has come back to guide them in difficult times and so hold him in high esteem.
The village Umuofia already belonged en masse to People’* Alliance Party and had elected Chief the Honourable Marcus Ibe as their representative in the previous election and nobody doubted his re-election this time also. The man behind Marcus’ success is Roof. He was his election campaign manager and had become a real expert in election campaigning at all levels. But towards the end of the story, we see that Roof is offered five pounds by the leader of the election campaign for a POP on condition that Roof votes for Maduka. A roof does not hesitate at all but tries to tell them that he is working for Marcus. But they allay his fears telling him that Marcus will not be there to watch him when he drops his vote in the box. Roof accepts their offer and swears to vote for Maduka in the presence of ‘iyi’.
On the day of the election, Marcus wants to make sure that every one of his people votes for him. Therefore, he asks Roof to cast his vote first. When Roof goes into the booth, he faces a moral dilemma. His conscience tells him that he ought not to betray Marcus. There is an impulse in him to run to the leader of the POP election campaign manager and return his money. But, when he recalls that he had sworn to vote for Maduka in the presence of ‘iyi’, he changes his decision in a split second and folds the ballot paper in two. He tears it into two halves and drops the first half into the box meant for Maduka and the other half into Marcus’ box. He also confirms his vote for Maduka by saying aloud, “I vote for Maduka”, and then goes out happily.
This act of Roof, of tearing the ballot in two, invalidates his vote. When a person tears it in two, it is clear that he has not chosen any person at all, though he may have dropped the two halves of the paper into different boxes. When Roof tears the ballot paper in two it is only to resolve the moral dilemma he is facing and not with the intention of exercising his choice. If he puts two halves in two different boxes, it does not mean that he has voted in favour of both. Actually it is an invalid vote. This is against the spirit of elections and is condemnable.
