He displays sheets with details of every man in his unit, including names of family members, the number of each kind of weapon, and a thumb print.

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Each and every smudgy thumb-print was scrutinised: The shaky blue splodge, the inky comet trailing blue splashes, the giant thumbs so large they had somehow voted for two parties rather than one.

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When the Supreme Court ruled, at the last minute, that the old thumb-print identity cards were as valid as the new photograph-carrying cards, many feared it would open the way to multiple voting.

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There will be no print media either, no pages in Vogue to thumb through with samples to try on.

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