Absolute Secrecy In Soldiers’ Voting

Northern Advocate, 30 September 1943, Page 2

Absolute Secrecy In Soldiers’ Voting

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Chief Electoral Officer (Mr. L. Irwin) made the following statement today: “Seme members of the forces have doubts of t.he secrecy of the ballot conducted recently, because of the fact that their names and regimental numbers appear on the butts of ballot papers. A consecutive number appears on the butt, and the ballot paper and form of declaration is pinned to the envelope containing the vote. Any doubts are immediately dispelled once the system of dealing with the votes is known.

“Briefly, the position is as follow-s: The outer envelope is opened, the sealed envelope containing the vote is endorsed with the name of the electorate shown on the declaration form, and the envelope is then placed in a locked-ballot-box for the particular electorate for which the serviceman voted. The declaration and sealed vote are entirely dissociated, and are net brought together- again unless the declaration is found to be incorrect. In the presence of scrutineers, the vote* is then set aside as informal. “Declarations are parcelled up <and the sealed ballot-boxes are opened up. the votes extracted, and envelopes sorted and counted. “Should a declaration be inadvertently included in the envelope by the voter, the envelope is opened and the declaration extracted. The envelope is then resealed without reference to the votes, and the same procedure as above is carried out. Scrutineers are present throughout. “So far as the consecutive number, is concerned, its sole purpose is to ensure that, if dual voting occurs, the vote of the elector may be extracted and disallowed. To do this all butts have to he checked and the consecutive number found, and ballot-papers have to be searched to locate the corresponding number. Not Seen By Any Person “By law the returning officer is bound to ensure that the faces of the ballotpapers handled in this way are not seen by any person. A check is made by the returning officer and his staff in the presence of a Justice of the Peace and scriptineers from all parties.” Mr. Irwin added that this was the only occasion when the butts and ballot papers were referred to, arid the law provided heavy penalties for any infringement of secrecy. After the official count, all butts and oapers were kept in the custody of the Clerk of the House of Representatives for a year and then destroyed,