LOCAL ELECTIONS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 67, Issue 160, 19 April 1947, Page 4

LOCAL ELECTIONS

PREPARATION OF ROLLS FOR NOVEMBER LONG AND TEDIOUS JOB In preparing for this year’s local body elections, to ,be held in November, a very heavy burden will fall upon the local bodies, and in particular the Ashburton County Council as a result of the recent amendments to the Local Elec- • tions and Polls Act. Already consideration was being given to the task of compiling rolls, which would entail a very- great amount of work, Mr G. Kelly (County Clerk) said this morning. In the case of the county the task was- no easy one, Mr Kelly emphasised. The names of ratepayers would be automatically placed on the rolls from the council’s card system, he said, but in the case of all others, who would be eligible to vote on a residential qualification, the local authority had the right to extract the names from the electoral roll. That would entail first eliminating all those names not. connected with the county, namely residents of the Ashburton Borough, Tinwald, and part of the Geraldine County included in the Ashburton electorate. Then the names of ratepayers already on the local body, rolls would have to be purged from the electoral roll. That then would give the names of thoee still to be added to the local body roll, to the extent that the electoral, roll was up-to-date, for by transfers, deaths and marriages, etc., since its publication, the electoral roll would also be out of date. Opportunity Will be Given Mr Kelly emphasised that the opportunity would be given persons, whose names were not on the electoral roll by reason perhaps of transfer from another district or by reaching the age of &l and who were eligible to vote, to enrol. Matters in the county were complicated further by the fact that because of riding representation, separate rolls had to be prepared for each riding, with the consequent problems associated with boundaries. At a later date people would be advised to check up to make sure that their names appeared on rolls and in the appropriate riding, he added. Long hours of overtime for his etaff were visualised by Mr R. C. Major (Town Clerk) when this preparatory work was referred to him.