CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

Evening Star, Issue 19546, 3 May 1927, Page 7

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

RECOUNT LEAVES POSITION UNALTERED PERCENTAGE OF IHFOHMALS TREBLED The recount of the votes at the election of Dunedin city councillors, now completed by Mr G. A. Lewin and his staff, makes no alteration in the relative positions of the twelve successful candidates, but it subtracts from each by adding to the number of informal votes, the total of these being 1,470. Commenting on that fact, Mr Lewin supplied some particulars that may be instructive. At the election in 1925 the number of persons who voted was 12,608, or 50.2 per cent, of those on, the roll. Of these, 530, or 4.12 per cent., cast informal votes. On that occasion the valid votes totalled 126,579, which proves that on the average each voter voted for 10.46 of the twelve candidates. Last week the number of persons who voted was 10,734, or 41.23 percent, of those on the roll, and of these 1,470, or 13.6 per cent., cast informal votes. The valid votes totalled 100,326, and this means that on an average each voter voted for 10.50 of the candidates. It appears, therefore, that plumping is not very much practised by Dunedin citizens. Another interesting point is that of the twelve _ candidates elected to the City Council, nine were voted for by a majority of the actual voters, whilst the tenth successful candidate was short of a majority by only 109._ The common cause of informality was leaving too many names on a ballot papier, and that this error was largely due to the change in procedure—expunging _ instead of affixing a cross—seems fairly obvious from the increased percentage of “ friformals.” Further evidence in the same direction comes from the fact that the informal votes in the Harbor Board election, with the smaller number of candidates, was only 228 out of 11,533 votes cast.