ELECTORAL ROLLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20844, 10 April 1931, Page 12

ELECTORAL ROLLS.

MANY USELESS NAMES. SYSTEM OF PURGING NEEDED. / ■ SUBURBAN BOROUGH FIGURES. r j Returning officers who are compiling electoral rolls at present are inclined to reiterate the old complaint that they are compelled to leave too many "oarnes on the lists. Until a few years ago electors who did not exercise their right of voting were auto/natically struck off the rolls until they applied for reinstatement, and this had the effect of keeping t|ie rolls thoroughly purged. However, that provision has abandoned and the only names the returning officer is allowed to strike off are those who are proved to have died or who to his personal knowledge have left the district. In the city a careful check is made of all electors who have died, but it is impossible to keep track of all removals. One obvipus objection to the retaining of numbers of ineffective names on the rolls is that it readily opens the door to impersonation. The matter of striking off automatically the names of jion-voters is governed by regulation, and it would not bo at all a difficult matter to reinState tho position. Tho nunjbers of names on the main rolls of the various suburban boroughs are as follows: Mount. Albert .. 8271 Mounl Eden 8256 Unohunga 4721 Takapuna 4588 Devonport .. .. .. 44^.6 Otahuhu .. .. .. 2474 One Tree Hill .. .. 2370 Birkenhead . .. .. 2255 New Lynn 2055 Newmarket .. .. .. 1589 Northcote .. .. v .. 1545 The supplementary rolls of several of the boroughs closed, like the city supplementary roll, on Wednesday evening, but some are still open. The Otahuhu roll will close on April 22 and tho Newmarket roll on April 23. New Lynn, Birkenhead, Northcote and Takapuna rolls will close a fortnight before the elections on May 6. Tho Mojunt Albert supplementary roll will contain about 1200 names, the Devonport ono about 950 and tho Onehunga one 365. * I 11,111 l Jill I