Ticks and crosses

Press, 13 June 1979, Page 18

Ticks and crosses

Sir, — May I suggest that the next time you address an important issue editorially, you first identify the problem, Your entire discussion of the ticks and crosses question (June 12) failed to note that thousands of votes will be disallowed if the new legal ruling is allowed to stand. As was well shown by a television current affairs

team in some areas up to 19 per cent of voters do not interpret the instructions and format of the voting papers in the same way as the Electoral Court. That is a simple fact. In my view it is sufficient to show that the ruling of the Electoral Court is not capable of producing a valid election result. It disenfranchises people just as effectively as the blacks in the Southern States of the United States were until recently by similarly indirect registration requirements. Your editorial rambled through a maze of “shoulds,” “maybes,” and “might bes,’’ missing the point entirely. —- Yours, etc., ALAN WILKINSON. June 12, 1979.

[Our correspondent may be able to suggest a workable alternative to the present law. We doubt the worth of an instruction such as: “Indicate on the ballot paper the candidate for whom you wish to vote.” That is what the present practice seems to be. — Editor]