COUNTING THE VOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 2 November 1925, Page 8

COUNTING THE VOTES.

WHY SOME ARE INFORMAL. IMPORTANT NEW FEATFRES. NO MORE ABSENT VOTERS' PERMITS. (By DEPUTY RETURNING OFFICER.) A great many electors are under the impression that if they mark their ballot-papers on Wednesday with a cross in the margin against the name of the candidate or the issue for which they wish to vote, instead of' carrying out the irAructions to cross out the names of the candidates and the issues which they wish to reject, such ballot-paper will be treated as informal. This is not the case. The Act specially instructs returning officers that no ballot-papers shall be rejected if in their opinion "the intention of the elector in voting is clearly indicated." What does make a ballot-paper informal —and this happens in hundreds of cases —is where electors try to vote both ways, and when they have finishea mutilating their ballot-paper nobody can tell what they really want. Apparently many electors vote first, and read the instructions afterwards, and their attempts at mending matters *ro the despair of painstaking returning officers. In a case like this they only have to ask, and they will be furnished with a fresh ballotpaper.

The confusion apparently rises from the different systems provided by the Legislature Act and the Locals Elections and Foils Act. The former requires tbe elector to vote by crossing out the candidates or issues rejected, and will apply to Wednesday's election. The latter requires the elector to vote by putting a cross in the nmrgin against the candidate or issue favoured, and this applies to the municipal elections last April, or to the Power Board poll a fortnight ago. It is, therefore, very strange that in the former election the voters were instructed to vote by putting a cross against the names of the favoured candidates, as required by the Act, whereas in the Civic Square issue, and similar issues presented by the various other local bodies, and also in the recent Power Board proposal, they were instructed to cross out the issue rejected, although this is contrary to the Act. The fact that these votes were accepted, although quite contrary to the sixth schedule of the Act, proves that no ballot-paper can be treated as informal, however it is marked, provided that tho intention is clear. A Uniform System Wanted. The fact remains that the existence of the two systems causes needless confusion, and one of them should be altered at once. Opinions will probably differ on which system should be retained, but the most experienced returning officers appear to favour the crossingout system. However, that is of minor importance compared with the necessity for making one system uniform. When that decision is made, there will be less informal ballot-papers, especially if the system is taught in the schools. Most schools have dozens of elections of one kind and another, but the very thing that will be most useful to the scholars in after life—how to mark their ballotpapers—is usually neglected. The names of the candidates are written up on the blackboard, and the scholars write on their ballot-papers the name or names selected. All that is required is to get them to write down all the names, and then cross out those they reject, and they would thus learn the system which would save all the confusion later on. Electors Can Vote Anywhere. A particularly heavy poll is expected on Wednesday, partly on account of this being the first election since compulsory enrolment was enforced, and partly on account of the great increase which has taken place in the population of the Auckland province since the last adjustment of boundaries, as disclosed by the enrolment returns. Another important innovation at the election is the abolition of absent voters' permits, and the substitution of the right for all electors to vote in any constituency, and not necessarily in their own. This is apparently a concession suggested by the marked success that has attended the recent establishment of city booths in local body elections, in some cases there being more votes recorded in the city booth than in many of the booths within the boundaries of the borough or district concerned. It remains to be seen whether the Legislature have nbt gone to the other extreme in providing such wide facilities for electors to A'ote outside their own constituency, and already the chief electoral officer is advising returning officers that electors are not supposed to take advantage of this facility except where absolutely necessary. If this new provision is utilised to its fullest extent it will hang up all the results which are at all close and it will be interesting to see to what extent electors will vote outside, for they will surely generally prefer to vote in their own electorate if at all possible. Tlie new system was tried for the first time at the Franklin by-election last June, and on that occasion 140 voted outside the post offices giving the facility which at the forthcoming general election will be available at any polling booth. Against this, limited opportunity last June must be set the fact that most people will have a half-holiday next Wednesday, so that probably there will be very few voting outside their own boundary. A Useless Waste of Time. In this connection there has been one regulation that will strike all deputies as utterly useless —the necessity for immediately telegraphing to the returning officer concerned the name of the voter who has exercised thus privilege. Apparently this has been done in order to prevent plural voting, but if any elector had any intention of incurring the grave risks attached to plural voting the last thing in the world that he would do would be to record his second vote in a booth where he has to sign an application. The risk would be much less in two booths within his own electorate, and as the immense labour of send ; na; separate telegrams for each vote would not in any case prevent plural voting this useless provision will no doubt be repealed. The only information that is of any immediate use to the returning officers is the total number voting, and one telegram at the end of the day should suffice.