PREPARING FOR POLL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20241, 29 April 1929, Page 12

PREPARING FOR POLL.

HEAVY TASK INVOLVED.

VOTING ON WEDNESDAY.

BALLOT PAPER TWO FEET LONG. PROCEDURE AT THE BOOTHS.

A voting-paper two feet long and five inches wide will bo handed to electors desiring a voice in the constitution of the new Auckland City Council, to be elected on Wednesday. Forty thousand ballot papers will bo available, and these, if placed end to end, would reach out over 15 miles into the country, or approximately the distance from tho Auckland post office to Manurewa. No one, of course, is likely to take practical steps to check that arithmetical calculation, but it at least gives some conception of tho magnitude of a municipal poll.

This week's busiest man will undoubtedly bo Mr. P. F. Notley, city returning officer, upon whom lies tho responsibility of making arrangements for tho poll and the counting and later checking of the votes cast in tho contest for the Mayoralty, the City Council, the Auckland Hospital Board and the Auckland Harbour Board. With 67 aspirants fo? 21 seats at the council table, the City Council contest will impose the severest test on Mr. Notley's staff, who will be counting far into the next morning to give a provisional result for discussion at tho breakfast table.

Staff of 637 Engaged. Two years ago, when 61 candidates sought municipal honours, it was felt that the limit had almost been reached, but since then the city has expanded to embrace Avondale, Tatnaki and Orakei, and on this occasion 67 candidates, including four women, have felt tho call to service. There are 47,795 names on the roll, an increase of approximately 8000 on tho 1927 total, while there will be 48 polling places, an increase of four. To cope with the work tho municipal elections will involve, a total staff of 637 has boon engaged. These include 190 deputy returning officers, 187 poll clerks and 260 counters. They will draw an aggregate of about £BSO for their services, and tho total cost of the city poll is expected to bo about £3OOO. Whero unemployed men with the requisite qualifications have applied for engagement, Mr. Notley has done his best to place them.

An immense amount of detail has to bo attended to by the returning officer in preparation for the poll. Ho has to think in terms of tapes, sponges, pencils and even buckets of water in arranging for the adequate stocking of the booths with tho paraphernalia required by electors. Laborious Task of Counting.

There are 115 ballot-boxes, mostly of cylindrical pattern, roughly of the letterbox fashion, and largo numbers of screens, which will provide two days' work for carriers in transporting the gear to tho various polling places. In between times, as it were, Mr. Notley becomes a sort of justico of the peace, taking solemn declarations from his deputies that they will observo tho secrecy of tho ballot. Those deputies have, in turn, to receive similar declarations from their poll clerks. All this gives but a brief insight into ilio work entailed. It takes no account of tho compilation of tho roll itself, tho engaging of halls, and the issuing of instructions tu the staff. Neither does the work cease with the preliminary counting of tho votes. An official count is later made—a laborious task extending over several days. Nevertheless, it is expected tho winner of Iho four-cornered Mayoralty contest will be announced before 9 p.m., and that the counting of the votes cast in tho City Council poll will bo completed by about 2 a.m. Method of Recording Votes.

Tho work of the returning officer's staff will be greatly facilitated if voters rnako themselves acquainted with tho proceduro at tho booths. Tho most important point, giving directions ns to how to vote, will be pninted on tho voting papers as follows:—"The voter is to leave untouched (ho names of the candidate or candidates for whom he desires to vote, and to draw a line through tho names of tho candidate or candidates for whom he does not desiro to vote."

All persons over the age of 21 whose names are on tho roll are entitled to vote, irrespective of whether they are ratepayers, residents or occupiers. A vote bv declaration will be allowed by the chief returning officer only if the omission of the name from the roll is purely an error of compilation. Even if a. declaration form is handed to a person demanding one, it does not necessarily follow that the vote will be allowed when it is examined at the Town Hall.

After an elector has exercised his vote ho has no right to re-enter tho booth. Tho deputy returning officers have been advised that this rule applies especially to candidates who, in their eagerness to assist, frequently re-enter tho booth with an elector, notwithstanding that they themselves have already voted. There are four candidates for (ho city Mayoralty, 67 for the 21 seats on the City Council, 15 for the five city seats on the Hospital Board, and 10 for the four city seats on the Harbour Board. Tho polling hours will bo from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.