POSTAL VOTING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1938, Page 11

POSTAL VOTING

SPECIAL PROVISIONS

Special provision is made in the Electoral Act for postal voting, which is available to any registered elector who— Will, on polling day, be absent from JJew Zealand. Will not, throughout the hours of polling on polling day, be within five miles by the nearest practicable route of any polling place. ~ Will, throughout the hours of polling on polling day, be travelling under conditions which will preclude him from attending at any polling place to vote. Is ill or infirm, and, by reason of such illness or infirmity, will be precluded from attending at polling place to vote, or, in the' case of a woman, will, by approaching or xe-r cent maternity, be precluded from attending at any polling place to vote. Is a lighthouse-keeper or member of a lighthouse-keeper's staff, or is the wife of a lighthouse-keeper or the wife of a member of a lighthouse-keep-er's staff, and will be precluded from attending at any polling place to vote. OVERSEAS TRAVELLERS. Electors who are leaving New Zealand before polling day should make their applications before their departure. Postal vote certificates and postal ballot-papers may be issued by returning officers at any time during ordinary office hours after the issue of the writ,. and before the time prescribed for the close of the poll. An elector wishing to vote by this means should communicate with the Heturning Officer of the district for ■which he or she is registered, when a form of application will be forwarded by post, with extracts from the regulations relating to postal voting printed on the back of it. The elector is required to read carefully the extracts from these regulations before exercising his or her vote. If an elector who is absent from his district has reason to believe that his application will not reach the Returning Officer for the district for which he is registered as an elector so as to enable him to receive a postal vote certificate and postal ballot paper from that officer in time to permit of his voting before the poll closes, he may make application to some other Returning Officer. DELIVERY BEFORE POLL CLOSES. Every postal ballot paper, accompanied by the respective postal vote certificate, must be delivered at the office of the returning officer for the district for which the elector is registered as an elector before 7 p.m. on polling day, and any envelope containing postal ballot papers received after that hour is stamped with particulars of the time and date of receipt, and marked "Informal." An elector to whom a postal vote certificate has been issued is not entitled to vote at any polling place unless, he first delivers to the deputy returning officer for cancellation his postal vote! certificate and postal ballot paper. Those who are unable to apply in person for a voting permit should ask a relative or friend to obtain the necessary application form and pamphlet of j instructions from the returning offi-, cer. VOTING ON GOLF COURSE. \ • Special arrangements are being made to record votes of golfers taking part in the Dominion ladies' championship tournament at the Ngamotu links, New Plymouth, on the day of the General Election and who will be absent 'from the electorates in which they are enrolled. •It has been arranged with the Xegistrar that a poll clerk will be in

attendance at the golf house for the purpose of filling in declarations which i all visiting voters will have to' sign. HOLIDAY PROVISIONS. By reason of Saturday, October 15, being fixed as polling day, business and industry will suffer a minimum of interference. Under the Electoral Act, election day is deemed to be a holiday after midday, and in this case those cities and towns that normally observe Saturday as a half-holiday will j not be affected. Those places that observe the holiday on any other day, will, of course, have to fall in line with the law and declare a half-holiday on the Saturday as well. The Act also provides that where the polling day is other than that appointed as the weekly half-holiday under the Shops and Offices Act, the provisions of that Act relating to the weekly half-holi-day shall be deemed to refer to polling day. Factories are not required to close, but employees are to be afforded a reasonable opportunity of casting their votes.