VOTING AT MUNICIPAL ELETIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 4895, 8 November 1878, Page 2

VOTING AT MUNICIPAL ELETIONS.

TO the iDrron. Sir, —A que; ti m arcee in the year 1870 as to whab constituted a vote under .the Otago Municipal Coiporation Ordinance, 18(55. The then presiding officer held that a "straight stroke" in Mie square printed upon the voting paper was no 1 ; a "cross'' within the square, a3 provided by the said Act, and disallowed the vote. The matter was referred to the Supreme Couit, when Mr Justice Chapman allowed the wto as showing the intention of the voter. Might I ask the question : What is, or should be, the duties of a presiding officer under the

Act 1 Is it his duty to carry,ont the wording of the Act, or to judflfeL of a voter who does Acts ? I enclose an oxfcra|| froni^e^l^reM^r' pool Weekly Mercury,f||wich. camoanlß^My^i^ : , lania lately, bearing jgfliilly on Wand beg its insertion reply, as I think it might be useful to presiding officers in the • discharge of their duties as such. Of cour»e the voting is not now carded out in the B&io way, gfeill I think if a Voter does not carry /, out the Jaw it is a bad precedent and might' be in many a case an abuse to place in the : : hands of a presiding officer tho px*wer.so. judge of the intention of a voter does not strictly comply with the law.—l am,"' &c, The then PRcstpiNG Officer. Dunedin, November 7. The judges of tho second division or the Court of Session, Edinburgh, have been called upon todecidea., point of great nicety under the Ballot Act, nainoty, whether tho placing of a "straight line" opposite to the n*mo of the candidate in place of the usual * cross" constituted a mark by which tho voter might be identitled, mid' thereby rendered, the vote invalid. Tho question admits of many arguments' more or less ~ rofined and technical, but the Scotch judgos decided by a majority that the vote was mvalid.— 'Liverpool Weekly Mercury.' *^— —————^——