THE ELECTION COUNTING OF VOTES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26517, 4 September 1951, Page 8

THE ELECTION COUNTING OF VOTES

Scrutiny Of Rolls Begun

POSITION IN LYTTELTON

All of the returning officers in the eight Christchurch electorates were busily engaged yesterday with their staffs either in sorting postal, absentee and declaration votes in the election or in checking the electoral rolls preparatory to the official count of votes. For seven of the returning officers thpir duties during the next seven days will be largely of a routine nature. In the Lyttelton electorate, however, the returning officer (Mr J. B. Dixon) will have added responsibilities because of the narrow fnargin of votes —4l on the preliminary count—between the sitting Labour member, Mr T. H McCombs, who is in the lead from the National candidate, Mr H. R. Lake. Votes will have to be most carefullv checked, and the returning officer has power to reject votes as informal on certain grounds. If,the official count shows, that each candidate has obtained an equal number of votes the returning officer has to give the deciding vote whether he is an elector of the district or not. In the past when this has occurred the usual procedure has been for the returning officer to do this bv lot. The result of the official count for anv seat in the Dominion cannot be announced before September 11 as returning officers have to wait for overseas and servicemen's votes. Overseas votes may be received up to 7 p.m. on September 10 and servicemen’s votes up to the same time on September 11.

Lyttelton Votes Mr Dixon hopes to be able to announce the final result for Lyttelton bv September 13. He will have a staff of six working each night, and he and his assistant Mr J. F. Mackey, will work each day. The scrutiny ’of the rolls, which was begun last evening, is expected to t=>e three or four nights. There are 1280 postal, absentee, and declaration votes to be counted, but these will not be dealt with unti] the rolls from all the polling booths have been checked against the master roll. Each candidate has the right to appoint one scrutineer to watch his interests during the scrutiny of the rolls and the official count. These scrutineers have already been appointed for the Lyttelton count. Scrutinv of the rolls is to ensure that no elector has voted twice or that an elector’s name has not been used twice for voting. Before postal absentee. or declaration votes can be included in the official count they have to be certified by the Registrar of Electors. In the Riccarton electorate where the scrutinv of the rolls began last evening there are likely to be more postal, absentee, and declaration votes than at the 1949 General Election, according to the returning officer, Mr L. M. Hartigan. The scrutinv of the rolls in the Christchurch Central electorate will begin to-day. The returning officer. Mr C. J. L. McCree, said yesterdav that he and his staff had to deal with 400 or 500 postal, absentee, and declaration votes. There were 356 postal votes—more than he had ever had before. Mr G. W. Brown, returning officer for the Fendalton electorate, said he expected the scrutiny of the rolls would take about three days. A considerable number of postal votes had been deceived from England. They had come in hatches from August 30 onwards. The scrutiny of the rolls in St. Albans will not begin until this afternoon. but in the other electorates— Fendalton, Sydenham, and Selwyn—it was started last evening.