COUNTY VOTES

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31017, 24 March 1966, Page 14

COUNTY VOTES

Valuation As Basis

County electors with property valued at £3OOO or more got three votes, and the figure appeared to be out of all relation to modern valuations, said Mr E. J. Stalker (Ellesmere) at the annual meeting yesterday of Ward 11 of the Counties’ Association. County ratepayers get from one to three votes, depending on their property valuations. He suggested that it would be more realistic to give the man owning £3OOO worth of property one vote, with two votes for up to £6OOO valuation and three votes for £9OOO and over.

The argument had been put up: Why give a county elector three votes when he had only one vote in the running of the country, said Mr W. M. Dailey (Oxford). The chairman (Mr C. N. Mackenzie) said that the extra votes for county ratepayer electors was a carry-over from the days when there was not an ordinary citizens’ vote. “Every man is equal, but there is not much wrong with a system that gives a ratepayer bigger voting power,” said Mr C. D. Le Compte (Heathcote). It could be pointed out that a municipal ratepayer had only one vote, said Mr W. Baird, deputy chairman of the counties’ association. If the counties voting scale was pursued, it might stir up a hornets’ nest.

Mr Stalker said he would not pursue the subject unless it got general support. The discussion lapsed.