SECRECY OF THE BALLOT

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12364, 1 December 1905, Page 8

SECRECY OF THE BALLOT

♦ A number of workmen in the Government service (says the "Otago Daily Times") have expressed tho fear that if they were to record their votes next week in accordance with their convictions, in favour of candidates who are opposed te tho present Administration, the fact might become known, and they might, iv consequence, bo dismissed from their employment. Their misgivings with respect to th© seorecy of tho ballot aro entirely baseless. If a man chooses to keep his own counsel, no living being can know how he votes. Elaborate precautions aro provided by law for the preservation of tho secrecy of the ballot. After tho votes are counted the ballot papers must be sealed up in packets, and these must, in terms cf tho Electoral Act, bo forwarded aa soon as is practicable to Wellington to tho Cork of tho House of Representatives, by whom they must be safely kept, unopened, for a year, unless a competent Court or the House of Representatives orders them to bo opened, and at tho expiry of that period the packets, still unopened, must be burnt in tho presence of tho Clerk of Parliament and the Clerk of the Writs. The secrecy of tho ballot is, in fact, as absolute as can bo desired. Tho fear of State employees that the Government may search the ballot papers to ascertain how they vote, and that their means of livelihood may be taken, from them if thoy do not support the Ministerial nominees, is, wo are convinced, absolutely groundless. Tlio party at present in power has many 6sns to answer for, but tho distrust expressed by public servants on this particular aspect of tho electoral system as administered by the Government should be at once dismissed.