THE GENERAL ELECTION

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 215, 11 September 1925, Page 9

THE GENERAL ELECTION

COUNTING THE VOTES. EXASPERATING DELAYS AND ERRORS. HOW TO MINIMISE THEM. (By DEPUTY RETURNING OFFICER.) The near approach of the general election suggests that the time is opportune to recall the unsatisfactory conditions prevailing at every election, chiefly the long wait before "the results are announced, and the inaccuracy of the figures when they are eventually given. It will be fresh in everyone's memory that at the last mayorai election in Auckland the official recount gave the present Mayor an additional 19S votes, whereas the first count was completed quite late enough to be exact. The delay and the inaccuracy are so common, "all over the Dominion, that there must be something wrong with the system, either in counting the votes, in transmitting them from the various booths to the returning officer, or in collating them when they get there. Even at the recent election at Franklin, an electorate which is usually noted for" more than the usual amount of expedition in getting out the returns, it will be remembered that only the approximate position could be given to the Prime Minister when he passed through Pukekohe in the Limited Express at about 8 o'clock, two hours after the poll had closed. If Mr. Coates had been given the exact figures it would have been hailed all over the Dominion as a veritable triumph of organisation. And yet it would have been nothing particularly special, for practically every electorate in the Dominion should have its returns out within two hours, instead of keeping people waiting till nearly midnight, as they usually are. Counting the Votes. This is the first trouble, and there is no doubt that many officials make heavy weather of it, labouring away for hours in a job which should be done in a few minutes, if they only knew how to do it. It is usually explained that it takes longer to count the votes in a large booth than in one where only a small number are recorded, but there is not much in this argument, for at all booths where more than 300 to 400 votes are likely to he recorded the returning officer increases the number of his deputies accordingly. Of course it was much easier to count the 25 votes that were cast at Maraetai last June than the 250 at Papatoetoe school, but against this would have to be set the greater case in telephoning the results from the larger booths than from the more isolated places. Speaking generally, however, in regard to all the ; larger booths, an experienced returning officer recently stated that it is a physical impossibility for any official to deal out to voters more ballot papers during the whole day than he can count in an ; hour, after the poll has closed. If the electors all come into the booth in Bregular stream the case misrht be differ - j ent, but every returning officer provides enough deputies to deal with the likely voters during the rush hours, and this strictly limits the number that any one I will handle during the nine or ten hours | that the booth is open. In actual practice, therefore, no deputy ever has to count more than he can record in an hour. Transmitting the Results. This problem naturally varies in an immense degree, ranging from the extreme simplicity of a densely populated city area, where each of the few large booths can immediately telephone its own results to the returning officer located at the chief booth, right down to the complications inseparably connected with the large and sparsely settled electorates with their multiplicity of small booths. However, this difficulty is steadily becoming less formidable every year, for nearly every homestead seems to be on the telephone now, so that even if the hall or school which is used as a booth is not on the telephone itself, the deputy does not need to walk or ride many minutes to the telephone which he has previously arranged to utilise. In essentially country districts a returning officer might well consider transferring his quarters to the post office as soon as the poll is closed, thereby received at first hand the various returns, instead of entailing the delay that might occur if he was using only one wire, and his deputies were continually finding it "engaged." In fact it was seriously proposed, a year or two ago, that the" postmasters themselves should act as the "returning officers, so that there ought to be no difficulty in accommodating the returning officer in the post office during one evening of the year when practically no business is passing through except that connected with the general election. Where this is not convenient three or four wires could be temporarily installed between his office and the post office, and this expedient has been adopted on more than one occasion already. The point to remember is that we have finally done with the isolation formerly borne by such places as the Great Barrier and Waiheie, where homer pigeons used to bring the records next day, for with telegraphs and telephones, cables and | wireless, no place is now really isolated from speedy communication. Collating the Returns. This ought never to take long, but it is probably the cause of most of the large errors, chiefly due to the work being entrusted to people who are not accustomed to figures. . On this point every returning officer should be certain of his position, and if figures are not his own long suit, or if hi? deputies »re a little rusty at calculations, it would be the simplest thing in the world to engasre 6 couple of bank tellers for the evening. For a couple of half-guineas they would then have their returns made up with the same infallible accuracy that the tellers practise in their daily duties, and there would no' longer be seen the deplorable results that are too often apparent- There is probably no returning officer in the Dominion so situated that he could not arrange this. By attending to these three important points, all the returns would be out within a reasonable hour, and would be absolutely correoti PULMONAS STOP NIGHT COUGHS. 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