OFF THE ROLL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 9

OFF THE ROLL.

THOUSANDS OF CITIZENS.

APATHY OF PUBLIC.

STATEMENT BY ELECTORAL

OFFICER.

"As far as enrolments are concerned, my department is absolutely dead," stated Mr. P. F, Notley, city returning officer, this morning. "As the final supplementary roll closes on April 8 and the Easter holidays intervene, organisations interested in the municipal elections will need to get a move on if they want to get the maximum of voters enrolled." , Mr. Notley said the main roll closed on January 31 and contained 40,801 names. He could not even state approximately how many people were not included, but was sure that thousands of residents had not taken the troupe to apply for inclusion. The heaviest supplementary roll had been recorded in 1927, when Labour organisations took the matter in hand in a thorough manner and their canvass resulted in over 10,000 electors being enrolled.

General Apathy. "I am past "the stage of being surprised at the apathy of the people," said Mr. Notley. "It is a general state, but there is always a big growl on election day when people come to vote and find their names are not included. The 'declaration' provision does not help to any extent. It only applies to persons whose names have been inadvertently omitted by mistake of the department. The City Council itself cannot be expected to make a canvass on account of the expense. It did undertake the work on one occasion, but the result was far from satisfactory. People did not realise that they were being placed on the roll, and in consequence many of them failed to vote.

"One of the troubles we have to contend with is the prevailing idea among such a large body of the people that voting at the last Parliamentary election qualifies one to be on the roll for the municipal elections. The municipal roll is separate and distinct, although the qualifiactions are practically the same. The overlapping of boundaries makes it impracticable for one and the same roll to be used."

Multiplicity of Candidates. Mr. Notley said it was regrettable that the Legislative Council had thrown out the bill which was designed to reinstate voting by placing an x opposite the name of the candidate the voter wished to return. His experience of city elections proved that the striking out of names had increased the informal votes from 2 to J2 per cent on ballot-papers for the return of councillors. There were 67 candidates last year, and as only 21 had to be returned voters had to cross out 40 names. If they left in one name too many then the voting-paper was invalid. This year, he said, there would be an additional set of ballot papers, as the Transport Board election would be held simultaneously with the election of Mayor, City Council, Harbour Board and Hospital Board.