LOCAL ELECTIONS.

RECOUNT OF MAYORAL VOTE. MR FLESHER'S MAJORITY » INCREASED TO 2399. The recount in connexion with the election of Mayor and of City Councillors and of the poll on the loan proposals was begun on Saturday. The recount of the votes cast in the Mayoral election was completed, and also the first and second counts in the election of councillors; the recount of the votes east on the loan proposals in connexion with the Concert Hall was not completed. THE MAYORALTY. The recount of the (votes cast for the election of Mayor gives Mr J. A. Flesher a majority of 2390 over his opponent, Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P. The figures announced on the night of the poll only gave Mr Flesher a majority of 1917. ' The recount decreased the number of informal votes from 475 t0'402. The result as shown by the recount was as follows: —

The recount shows that the total number of .votes (valid and invalid) cast Was 33 in excess of the total as announced on the evening of the poll. The difference is due to informal votes totalling 33 not hairing been telephoned by the deputies. No information as to the nature of the informalities which rendered the 402 votes f invalid was available on Saturday night. CITY COUNCILLORS. POSITION UNALTERED BY SECOND COUNT. ' The recount of the first preferences cast for the candidates for seats on the' City' Council was completed on Saturday, as was also the second count. Noadditional candidates were announced as elected as the result of the second count. The number of (valid votes cast for candidates for the City Council totalled 17,601, and the quota necessaryto ensure election was 1036. lhe total number of valid votes as established by the recount is 110 fewer than ,was announced on Thursday evening. / The firt preference votes received by 'each candidate, as corrected as the outcome of the recount, were as follows: Citizens' Association. J W. Beanland ... 1735 (elected) C. P. Agar . m 1380 (elected) • J. Anderson 1152 (elected) O W. B. Anderson 718 A. W. Beaven ... 652 A. McKellar ... 643 A. "Williams ... 626 W. E. Leadley ... 537 E. H. Andrews ... ,509 I. ' McGregor "Wright :605 ' A. Manhire ... 428 T. M. Charters .... 399 J. I>. Gray .... 266 J. E. Cooper ... 19j) D. Rowse ... 144 Total ... 9884 Labour Party. J. K. Archer ~... 1766 (elected) H. T.v'Ann- • ' strong, l ' M.P. 1712 (elected) | E. J. Howard, M.P. 788 ! E. R.McCombs .... 580 • . F. R, Cooke ... 466 : \ ' ' C. Carr ... 386 ,\ G. T.-Ow«n ... 190 ! R. D. Mkrtin ... 183 < ■.>■■ ...:*..■ E. E. Laftgley ...,, 119 ,I ; ,';.. ">> F. M. Robson ... ' .£5 vfrs~f7j. —J— r -5-i,---*J* ; ': Total ;•■ ... 6215 ;> : : . Independents. v "W. H. "Winsor ... 729 R. B. Owen ... 373 C. W: Hervey ... 167 R. Hampton ... 143 J. L. Gant ... 70 F.. E. Psarl ... 20 Total ... 1502 As compared with the results announced on Thursday night, the recount has decreased the total ivotesjcast for Citizens' Association candidates by 67; those for the Labour Party candidates' by 5& j and hag increased the votes cast for the independent candidates by 15. As the result of the recount Mr McKellar moves from .fifth to sixth place in the Citizens' Association's list, and Mr Beaven moves from sixth to fifth place, the difference between i these two candidates being 9 votes.' - Information aa to the nature of the informajities which made certain votes invalid was not available on Saturday night, but it is understood that the use of the old system of indicating the candidates for. whom the voter wished to record his vote—that is, by striking; out the names o| the candidates he did not wish to vote for—accounts for - a. big proportion of the informal votes; mis-numbelring and plumping are understood to account for about an equal number or informal votes. This approximates closely to tbeyexroeriences of the 1921 elertion, when 51.698 per cent, of the informal votes was due to the use of the old system; 34.340 per. cent, to misnumbering; and 7.547 per cent, was due to plumping. Blank* (unmarked) papers in 1921 represented 6.415 of the total informal ivotes^ To-day the third count will be and in all nrohabilitv the recount or the loan poll will be completed.

THE INFORMALITIES. The Mayor; referring on Saturday to the large number of informal votea recorded during Thursday's polling, said the whole system should be simplified by requiring the electors to vote in the same way on ,all proposals by placing the figures 1, 2, and so on against the propositions or persons intended to be supported. The intentions of the electors could be clearly ascertained in all cases by that method. In certain cases, such as the Mayoral and loan poll issues, any figure after 1 would hare no value, but it would be doing no harm. The idea was to simplify the process of voting and at the same time to have recorded the clear intention of the elector. Dr. Thacker added that on some of me voting papers used for the Council election the electors had employed all three systems in marking the paper. Some of the names had 1, 2, 3 and so oh recorded against them, other names were struck out, and others again had crosses placed against them, and ail this on the one paper. That showed clearly the confusion present in the minds of those electora.

Flesher . **% ... 10,606 Sullivan ■.** [:: 8,207 Informal 402 Total ».» 19,215