White Smoke, Pope; Black Smoke, Nope: How Conclave Smoke Gets Its Color. A chemical mixture is added to the cardinals' ballots to signal conclave vote. By ABC News. March 13, 2013, 12:26 PM.

White smoke from the roof of the Sistine Chapel on March 13th, 2013, indicating the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Roman Pontiff with the name of Pope Francis I. CREDIT: Grzegorz ...