THE ELECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 113, 15 May 1941, Page 10

THE ELECTIONS

VOTING RIGHTS

, THE FRANCHISE

SYSTEM EXPLAINED

The local body elections on Saturday will be the first occasion upon which general use is made of the "cross" system of voting, and as certain alterations were made in the franchise by a Bill passed when Parliament last met the following official explanation has been given:— Voting in each case will be done by marking crosses opposite the names of the candidates selected. Those entitled to vote for candidates are briefly as follows: — Cities, Boroughs, and' Town Districts. —Ratepayers, occupiers, freeholders, State tenants, and those with residential qualifications; the husband or wife of any of these electors. Counties.—Ratepayers (in own right), State1 tenants, "and holders of miners' rights. Road, Drainage, and River Boards. — Ratepayers and State tenants. Rabbit Boards.—Ratepayers or stock owners according to the franchise adopted by individual boards. Harbour Boards.—Electors with city, borough, town district, or county franchise. Payers of harbour dues and ship owners elect their own representatives. Hospital Boards. —Electors with city, borough, town district, or county franchise. In certain special case's road board electors also have the hospital franchise. Electric Power Boards.—Electors with city, borough, town district, or county franchise. Petone and Lower Hutt Gas Lighting Board.—Petone and Lower Hutt electors elect three members each and these six appoint a seventh. If they cannot agree on their selection the seventh is appointed by the GovernorGeneral in Council. There are also elections for various boards set up, for special purposes, as, for instance, the Ohai Railway Board. The franchise for such boards is set out in Acts of Parliament passed for .the establishment of the boards. The polling hours on Saturday will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., not 7 p.m., the former closing hour. VOTING BY DECLARATION. In every case the voter -should appear on the roll of electors, but where a voter goes to the poll believing that he is on the roll and discovers that he is not, he may vote by declaration. Such votes are set aside until the poll is closed, when they are examined by the returning officer, who may accept any such vote if he is satisfied that the voter was qualified to be enrolled, that ! the local authority or the proper officer thereof had knowledge of the voter's qualifications, and that his name was inadvertently omitted from the roll.