“It is for voting. Individuals use white and black balls to vote, and stick them within the gap. When carried out, that facet is opened, and the balls are counted. That is additionally the origin of the time period ‘blackballed.'”
When requested the way it labored, u/brock_lee later replied, “There are white and black balls out there to vote with. Generally, a single black ball will likely be sufficient that the vote fails (similar to membership in a membership that must be unanimous). So, if there are 40 members of the membership, they could put 40 white balls and an unknown variety of black balls (as an instance 5) within the hopper. When that is handed to somebody, they decide a ball and place it within the gap. If there are 5 black balls, they do not know what number of they began with, so that they must vote on how they really feel. And, when the votes/balls are tallied, even a single black ball will deny membership.
If it is a majority, and there are 20 members, they could both give every particular person one white and one black ball forward of time, or they could put 20 white and 20 black balls within the hopper. And other people put one within the gap. Even when they see there are far fewer than 20 black balls, and so they know membership will likely be denied, and so they had been against membership, they don’t have any actual motive to vote white, for the reason that votes are nameless.”