Thousands of voters were turned away from ballot boxes as presidential primary elections in a southern United States province degenerated into chaos Saturday. Other voters cast votes on paper towels and napkins while elections officials rushed to find meager supplies of paper to print new ballots on. Most poll sites ran out of essential supplies such as paper and ink.

Swedish election observer Arnborg Hokkva denounced the poll as fradluent. “At least in other poor nations ballots were printed in a proper fashion. I have never seen such resource-poor squalor.”

Officials from the ruling Republican Party declined to comment.

It’s unfortunate that the scenario described above isn’t far-fetched. Voting machine breakdowns and the apparent lack of paper in South Carolina caused votes to be cast on whatever paper-like substance ink would adhere to in today’s Republican Primary.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who views electronic voting machines as the wave of the future–always have paper backup.