THE BALLOT IS SECRET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 31 December 1924, Page 8

THE BALLOT IS SECRET

(London Daily Mail). • If. there is any' person left hi this highly developed* democratic country who imagines'flhnt anyone can discover how ho or she votes the sooner■that idea is dismissed from the mind the bettor. . The ballot is absolutely secret.

Husbands and wives, jinless they indulge in mutual confidences, will never otherwise know how each other voted. The. whole machinery is devised to ensure tliat. no one shall know how the voter voted except the voter himself, that .no one ever shall know, or even can know.

’.First of all there is the Ballot Act., 1872—a very real, live statute, especially at general election time. The fourth section of this Act, which is handily summarised in “Rogers <m Elections”. (I9tli ed., by C. YT. Williams; Stevens and Sons. Ltd.), orders all officials, authorised to attend at a polling station to aid in maintaining the secrecy of voting. They may give no information of any kind as to tlie name and number on the register of any voter, whether he has voted or not, or as to the official mark or number on the ballet, paper given to any' voter, or any in haul,alien as to the way in which a* voter has voted or is about to vote.

They must not interfere, with a voter (while he is marking his vote, or ask him how he has voted ,or to show his ballot paper. Before the poll is opened this fourth section has to he read to the poJUngstatio'o officials who must make and subscribe the statutory declaration of see'recy. Arid the penalty fpv t disobeying thefce gecCecv rules is 'six months’ imprisonment with or without liard lahour. Also, just before the poll begins,fthc presiding officers are legally bound' to show tiie ballot boxes to the persons who may bo present, for them to see that they are empty, Then they must

lock and seat the boxes up in such a. way tliiU- mi box can bo opened without breaking the seal. And thus the boxes jyill remain, within sight of the officials, during the whole time of polling. But what, the voter sees and does for himself ■ should by itself convince him of tne secrecy of the wiiole proceeding. He receives his ballot paper from the official at the table. There i s an official mark stamped on the back of the ballot paper. The. Ballot Act specifically orders that this must be kept- seeret. On the front of the ballot- paper are the names of the candidates.

The voter takes this paper to a sepa - rate compartment where ho alone can see how.he votes. He then folds up the ballot paper so as to show the official mark on tlie back, and in such a way as to hide the front of the paper. Ho shows tlie official mark on the back to the presiding officer, and then, in the presence of the presiding officer, puts the paper into the ballot-box. _ After the close of the poll precautions for secrecy are equally stringent. After the votes are- counted the ballot papers-pass into the custody of the t’lerk of the Crown. They remain stored in the Palace of Westminster under the charge of. Sir Claud Schuster, who is the present holder of that office, for a venr. and are then destroyed.