ELECTION PUZZLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22109, 15 May 1935, Page 12

ELECTION PUZZLE

THE TBANSPOBT BOABD CHAIRMAN INSECURE DIFFICULTIES OF COUNT HUNT FOR PLURAL VOTES Extraordinary complications have developed in the Auckland Transport Board election. Owing to a great reduction ,in the margin between certain candidates for Auckland City seats on the board, the returning officer, Mr. W. St J. Clarke, and his staff are faced with a heavy and very difficult task in eliminating all possible informalities from the official count, particularly cases of plural voting. It is not unlikely that under these conditions the result will not be announced for nearly a week. What adds interest to the situation ig that the present chairman of the board, Mr. J. A. C. Allum, faces the possibility of losing his seat. In the preliminary count on polling night Mr. Allum was placed last of the six successful city candidates, with 11,468 votes, the next lower being Mr. F. E. Lark (Labour), with 11,103. Early in the official count the margin of 36f» votes between Messrs. Allum and Lark was greatly reduced, and Mr. Clarke stated yesterday that the poll figures were such that the most careful search would have to be made for informalities in the voting. Multiplicity of Rolls

The chief difficulty arises over the possibility of plural voting. The Transport Board electorate is divided into three "constituencies," the first comprising Auckland City, the second the local districts of Mount Eden, Mount Albert and Newmarket, and the third the districts of Onehunga, One Tree Hill, Mount Roskill, Panmure, Mount Wellington and Ellerslie and the Mangere riding of Manukau County. For the poll the rolls of the 11 respective local bodies are used, and only persons whose names appear upon them are entitled to vote.

However, an elector is entitled to only one vote in the whole election, even though he or she is enrolled in more than one local -district in an individual constituency, or in local districts in two or more of the three constituencies. Where a case of plural voting is detected, both or all the plural votes must be treated as invalid; hence the count in one constituency may affect the count in another. Progress of Checking The situation of an elector entitled to vote in, say, the City and Mount Eden last week was peculiar. Unless hp notified the poll clerk he was supplied with a full set of five ballot papers in each instance, and in order to comply with, the law it was necessary for him to register an informal vote for the Transport Board in one instance. By last evening the counting staff, under the direction of the city returning officer, Mr. P. F. Notley, who has been assisting in the matter, had checked the rolls of the 11 local districts and had prepared a master roll for each. The task now is to check the master rolls with each other. This is a very difficult task, because some of the suburban rolls do not state the full Christian names, occupations and addresses of all electors, as the City roll does. It is therefore possible that a person who voted on one roll cannot be identified completely with a person, believed to be the same, who voted on another roll. Search Among Voting Papers . If plural votes are discovered it will be necessary to hunt through and examine thousands of voting-papers in order to find those deemed illegal, and the votes so cast will have to ba subtracted from the totals;.

A further complication arises from the fact that the "one man, one vote" rule does not prevent an elector from exercising one vote in his personal right and others as a trustee or on behalf of a company. Legitimate plural voting of this kind will have to be distinguished iri the. count from illegal voting in which an elector has voted' more than once in his own right. It has been stated that on polling day some deputy-returning officers misunderstood their typewritten instructions and allowed only one Transport Board ballot-paper to persons who were entitled to exercise two votes in different capacities. In some cases, it is understood, the officers later discovered this error and got into touch with the voters concerned, so that matters were put right. Every effort was made before the poll to avoid any misunderstanding in regard to electors' rights. The position was clearly stated in the election advertisement and on the voting paper, and definite instructions were supplied to all officials. Change in Law Needed

In past elections the question of plural voting has not been regarded as material, for the reason that margins between the votes secured by candidates have hitherto been so wide that such irregularities could not have affected the results. Similarly, in the Harbour Board and Hospital Board polls no account has been taken of the possibility of plural voting as between districts. One reason for this possibly is that unlike the Transport Board, neither the Hospital Board nor the Harbour Board has a returning officer of its own, but appoints a local body returning officer in each of its districts to conduct the poll in that district, the election being thus held, so f o speak, in several watertight compartments.

The Transport Board's experience this year shows that the franiers of the Auckland Transport Board Act failed to realise the virtual' impossibility of enforcing the principle of "one man, one vote" in ar, election conducted upon 11 different local body rolls. It mjiy well be suggested that an amendment of the legislation is needed if trouble is to be avoided in future.