COMPULSORY VOTING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 28, 2 January 1926, Page 6

COMPULSORY VOTING.

Some interesting tables have been perpared in connection with the recent Australian Federal elections, which show very clearly that, under compulsion, a faxgreater number of electors went to the poll and recorded their votes than on any previous occasion. For the whole of the Commonwealth, 91.08 per cent, of the electors voted, South Australia leading with 92.87 per cent., and Victoria second with 92.77 per cent., the votes in the other States giving the percentage records of votes polled as follows: —West Australia, 90.80; New South Wales, 90.25; Tasmania, 90.00; Queensland, 88.82 per cent. The comparatively low record of the latter State is partly accounted for by the. fact that the Kennedy seat fell to Air G. A. Francis, the Nationalist candidate, owing to the death, two days prior to the election, of the Labour candidate, Mr C. McDonald, who held the seat in the late Parliament. The enrolments in that electorate totalled 33,149, that being somewhat under the 1922 enrolments of 33,971. At the 1922 election 24,081 electors voted, so that the Queensland pollings on November 14th fell short of the possible total by at least 25,000 votes. Competent judges are of the opinion that the system of compulsory voting adopted by the Commonwealth produced a more accurate reflex of the opinion of the country on the main issue submitted to it by Mr Bruce than would have been possible under the former system. Some critics, however, while admitting the correctness of that conclusion, hold that the real test of compulsory voting has yet to come, and its true effect will only be ascertainable at a General Election when the line of cleavage between the two main parties is less clearly drawn. The main fact disclosed by the elections is that compulsory voting increased the percentage of electors who voted, from 59.36 per cent, of those enrolled in 1922 to 91.08 per cent, in 1925 —that is by 31.72 per cent., a really notable advance. On the average of the nine previous federal elections the increase was 27.03 per cent. The first four elections (1901, 1903, 1906, and 1910) only gave an average vote of’ 55.06 per cent., the lowest average on record (that of 1903) being only 50.27 per cent. The other five elections gave an average of 71.25 per cent, of votes polled by those entitled to vote. It has been generally assumed that Labour polls its full strength at a general election. That idea is not altogether borne out by the percentage increases in Victoria, where, in twelve electorates, over 90 per cent, of the electors enrolled recorded their votes, the average in Balaclava and Kooyong being 95 per cent.; in Bendigo, 94.5 per cent.; in Ballarat and Henty 94 per cent, and so on. In Ballarat Labour increased its vote by 34.65 per cent., the non-Labour votes

showing an increase of 29.84 per cent."' In the Yarra electorate, while Labour increased its vote by 75.7 per cent., the non-Labour increase was 110.4 per cent. The Flinders electorate gave an increase of 131.45 per cent, to Labour and 210.35 per cent, to non-Labour. The Labour vote in Melbourne went up 56.6 per cent., and the non-Labour vote increased by 160.5 per cent. But in Kooyong, the Labour vote increased by 230.7 per cent., the non-Labour vote only rising by 60.3 per cent. Echuca, again, showed an increase of 127.4 percent. in the Labour vote and of 80.9 per cent, in that of non-La-bour. Jt would therefore appear that Labour must either have made a much greater number of converts since 1922 than it was generally credited with possessing, or that a very considerable number of electors, supporting Labour, failed to go to the poll in 1922. The figures are certainly instructive and well repay analysis. Actually, 3,004,541 out of the 3,298,792 electors on the rolls went to the polls, but out of that number 175,800 recorded informal votes, over 100,000 more than the next highest number (74,349) recorded at any previous Federal election.