THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL BILL.

Evening Star, Issue 11682, 14 February 1902, Page 1

THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL BILL.

Ow January 31 Senator O'Connor (New South Wales), Vice-President of the Federal Executive Council, moved the second reading of the Electoral; Bill, which designed, he stated, the uniformity and equalisation of representation throughout the Commonwealth. The leadin v g principles are the establishment of a court of disputed returns ; the adjustment of electoral boundaries by commissioners, as in New Zealand ; provision for recording votes through the' Post Office; the contingent vote and the exhaustive ballot in elections for the House of Representatives; and proportional representation in the election of Senators. The Bill appears to be based in a great measure on South Australian and Queensland legislation, little account being taken of the electoral law in the other States. Provision is made for the appointment of a chief electoral officer for the Commonwealth, of a Commonwealth electoral officer for each State, and of a returning officer for each division of each State. The franchise assumed is that of the Commonwealth Franchise Bill introduced in thei House of Representatives in June last, which provides that, subject to certain disqualifications, any adult who is a natural born or naturalised subject of the King, and who has resided continuously for six months in Anstralia, may become an elector Lists of qualified persons are to be prepared from information supplied by statistical officers, which upon revision by a snecial court' Income electoral rolls. New names may be added by the returning officers or the electoral registrars, who are also to strike out the names of dead persons, and rolls are from time to time to be revised by revision courts. An elector must vote in the division in which he resides, and| unless he votes by post or obtains n certificate he must vote »t the polling-place for which he. is enrolled. But by obtaining a certificate at least three days before polling day he may vote at any polling-place in his division. On migration to another division one month's residence there entitles an elector to transfer to that division, but no transfer is to be registered within three days of polling day. General elections of representatives are to be on the same day in all divisions, and all writs are returnable* on the same day. All questions of disputed returns are to be heard and determined by a special court constituted by a justice of the High Court of Australia or of the Supreme Court of any State. This court is to sit as an open court, and is to bo guided by the substantial merits and .good conscience in each case, without regard to legal forms and technicalities, or whether the evidence is in accordance with the laws of evidence or •not. Its decisions are to be final, and without appeal. Each State is to be distributed into as many electoral divisions as iit has representatives. The distribution in each State is to be made by three commissioners appointed for that State by the Governor-General. So far as practicable, the number of electors is to by the same for | each division, but a margin of 25 per cent, is allowed either way. where community or diversity of interests, means of communication, or physical features appear to justify the same; but reasons are to be assigned of more than a thousand from the average number of electors. Adi tfiliation made by the commissioners, and approved by the House of Representatives, at once takes effect.. Any elector who resides more than ten wiles from his polling-place, or who on polling day is more than ten miles therefrom, or is unable to attend thereat on account of iil-health. may vote by post. The vote is to be recorded in the presence of a postmaster, electoral officer, or a justice of the peace. The elector is to write the name of the candidate he votes for on his voting-paper, and to mark all the names on the list in the order of his preference. Each elector has one vote, which he indicates by placing the number in the square opposite the name of the candidate for whom he votes ; but. in addition, he may give contingent votes by placing the numbers 2, 3, and so on in the squares opposite the names of other candidate,. If any candidate obtains an absolute majority of " ones," he is elected ; but if not, the candidate with the least number of "ones" is excludod. Each voting-paper previously counted for the excluded candidate is then counted as a " one" for the candidate (if any) marked "two" thereon. The process is repeated until at last the candidate is elected by an absolute majority of those electors who have cast sufficient votes to enable them to take, part in the final scrutiny. In the election of Senators each elector votes as in the election of Representatives, except that he has the power of placing the same number opposite the name of two or more candidates, and also the power of striking out the names of any candidates for whom he objects to vote under any circumstances. To secure the election of a. candidate for the Senate he must secure a definite number of votes. This number is called the. quota, and it is found by dividing the number of valid votes by one more than the number of seats to be filled, and increasing the qnotient by one. Thus, in the election of three Senators, anything over 25 per cent, of the total votes is sufficient to secure election. The votes which a candidate has in excess of the quota form bis surplus. The electore who create the surplus of any candidate share in the surplus on partnership principles. Each of them contributes rateably towards the return of his next favorite candidate. The voting-papers of all those electors are passed on with a diminished value, each to the appropriate next favored candidate. When any candidate has no surplus the lowest candidate is excluded, and the process of exclusion is repeated until as many seats as possible have been filled up, each by a candidate elected by a full quota of votes. It must be admitted, declares Professor Nanson, of the Melbourne University, who is an acknowledged authority on proportional representation, that this comprehensive Bill contains well-nigh all that human ingenuity can devise to make elections pure, to make afl electors equal, and to give to every vote a real, substantial, and effective ralne.