The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1908. RIGGING THE ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 291, 2 September 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1908. RIGGING THE ELECTIONS.

We have hithorto abstained from comment upon the Second Ballot Bill now before Parliament, for the roason that it appeared to us incrediblo that any Government would sock without warning, and without any public ventilation of the subject, to effect a completo change in electoral methods on the very eve of the olcction. But the frequency of the Pbime Minister's declarations of his intention to pass this Bill, and tho tono of those declarations, encourage tho belief that he is after all determined to carry through his plan to influence tho elections if the House will permit him to do so. The country may look forward, therefore, to an attempt to take advantage of the impatience and weariness of members at tho end of the session to alter electoral procedure in a way that has never been considered by the electors nor demanded by any section of tho public. Not merely is the Bill made by the circumstances of its submission to Parliament a bad bit of gerrymandering : apart from all other considerations, it is quite undesirable in substance. The public has novor Im.un wkad tg think nf what the Government's proposals mean

—a fact that quite disqualifies the Bill from advancement—and we should therefore briefly explain its purport. If at any election no candidate secures an absolute majority of the votes cast, a scconcl ballot will be held—fourteen days after tho first in the nine most scattered electorates, and seven days in other districts—to decide which of the two candidates who polled most heavily at the first ballot shall be elected. The idea, of course, is to secure that there shall be no " minority representative " in Parliament. As a matter of fact, no such result is necessarily secured by the second ballot: there is ample evidence tliat the reverse is often the case. In Germany the use of the second ballot system at the 1907 elections secured that the Centre party, which polled about two and a quarter million votes at tho first ballot against three and a quarter millions polled by tho Social Democrats, secured 105 seats against tho Democrats' 43. In Belgium the second ballot system worked so badly, resulting in the disappearance of whole parties and actual majorities in the deals between the polls, that it was abandoned. "The press of all parties," says a report presented to the Belgian Senate in 1899, " were insistent in pointing out the contradictions, the absurdities, the dangers of the second ballots, and demanded their suppression with a force that increased with every election." In a White Paper issued by the British Government a few months ago, Sir Arthur Hardinge, British Minister at Brussels, declared that the second ballot system " opens the door to negotiations among the caucuses representing the parties whose candidates are unsuccessful at the first ballot with a view to combinations on the second, which have often very little to do with political principles, or even with general party interests." In France, a report presented to the .Chamber of Deputies by a commission in 1907 condemned tho second ballot system. M. Dekchanel, an ex-Pre-sident of the Chamber, says of the second ballots that " their perplexing coalitions falsify the character of the popular verdict," and M; Yves Guyot observed: "The second ballots result at the time of the election in detestable bargainings which obliterate all political sense in the oloctors. Afterwards, in the Chamber of Deputies, thoy foster incoherence both in policy and vote,' the greater part of tho Deputies being , engaged in giving satisfaction both to the electors they really represent and to the minorities which have been indispensable to their success, but which have acccptcd them as their representatives for want of better."

In any event, since only a proportion of the voters who voted at the first ballot will vote again, the man elected on a second ballot will in most cases be more decidedly a " minority " representative than the " minority f' representative who succeeds at present. ' In France and Germany it has bcon found that only about ono-third of the electors go to the trouble of voting a second time. Other defects there are in plenty. It is conceivable that in some electorates tho first two candidates together may poll less than the remaining candidates together. The second ballot in such cases at once disfranchises, in effect, a majority of the voters. Mr. Herhies, in a recent' statement in Christchurch, noted other objections. The fact that people would not vote twice.i ho pointed out, would be specially Apparent in tho country districts, with the result that " the great preponderance of voting power will be secured, to the small townships." Hp noted also the great expense that would be incurred by candidates. Moreover, "we will probably have Ministers invading doubtful electorates, and promis-. ing all sorts of things in order to secure the return of their candidate." It is obvious that the second ballot system would rendor easier and more effectual the process of v political bribory. The Prime Minister's for the Bill is of course duo to His alarm at the squadrons and cohorts and processions charging down' on tho electors as " supporters of the Government," offering nothing in tho way of political credentials except a firm determination to keep on the side of the man who holds the Treasury keys. Little he cares about " scientific voting " : if he had given any stully to 'the subject, ho would not back a principle that is the worst of all methods yet devised to secure " majorityvoting." In any event, it is a well-un-derstood principle that no vital change •in electoral methods should be effected without prior reference to the electors. This question has simply never been before the present-day public. We shall be reminded, of course, of\Mn. M'Nab's Absolute Majority Bill; but when that measure was current, Mr. M'Nab was an obscure private member, with an obscure fad that only a few languid leaderwriters ever discussed. It is to be hoped that a very firm stand will be taken against any attempt on the part of the Government to force this gerrymandering proposal on the country on the eve of the goneral elections.