Special pens to sign bills

It’s common knowledge that Presidents and Governors use special pens for bill signings, sometimes using one pen for each letter in their name. Article II, Section 22 of the North Carolina Constitution requires bills to be signed by the presiding officer of each house (usually the Speaker and Lieutenant Governor) before going on to the Governor. We’ve had special requests from the presiding officers. When Jimmie Green was Speaker and Lt. Governor, we had to use green ink.  When Dan Blue was Speaker, we used blue ink.  This year, we settled on a Pilot Precise Grip 1.0 mm bold pen. It wasn’t an official state contract purchased pen, it had simply shown up in then Enrolling Office earlier this year as we picked random pens from our stock to use.  Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue liked the pen and asked that we stick with that pen. Speaker Hackney used his own pen early in the 2007 Session, but told Enrolling Clerk Karen Jenkins he liked the broad point of the pen that Lt. Governor Perdue was using, so we stuck with it.

We had just one of the Pilot pens, (we don’t give them away) and our purchasing office did not find it on state contract, so yesterday I went and bought a pack of four myself on eBay for $1.98. Now we won’t have to worry as much about losing the pen.