ELECTION VOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23969, 20 May 1941, Page 6

ELECTION VOTES

OFFICIAL COUNT BIG TASK IN CITY OVER 800.01)0 PAPERS The official count of the votes in the local hodv elections on Saturday was commenced yesterday, ft is expected that in the suburban areas the count will be completed in a day or two and it will then be possible to make the final declarations. The biggest task is being undertaken by the city returning officer, .Mr. N. W. Kenny, whose start will have to count weli over 800,000 votes. A start was made at the Town Hall yesterday morning with a special stafl of over 100. About one-third of the workers were engaged on the scrutiny of the rolls used in the election, the object being to secure a master roll showing all those who exercised the vote. Incidentally, this serves as a check on any elector who might have voted more than once, j Most of the remainder commenced the counting of tho votos for the Mayoralty, j while others started with the counting of those for council candidates. Informal Votes Mr. Kenny said it would possibly be the end of this week before the counting of these votes, and those cast for city candidates for the Hospital Board and Harbour Board, could be completed. While the mayoral voles would not take so long, the final result could not be ascertained until the informal and declaration votes bad been scrutinised and those found to be valid added to the totals. The investigation of the informal votes cast in the mayoral contest was undertaken yesterday by Mr. Kenny, who invited representatives of the two principal parties concerned in the election to sit with him. On Saturday night it was seen that there were 325 informal votes cast on this issue, and yesterday approximately 35 of these were allowed, the remainder being rejected. The policy followed was to allow the vote where the intention of the elector was clearly indicated,- and in no case was Mr. Kenny's judgment challenged. Errors In Marking It w'as also possible to make a start with the council votes. With the names of 48 candidates, it will take much longer to deal with these informal votes, which number about 460. It was clearly shown that many electors had not followed the instructions for voting, which were that an X must be placed in the square opposite the name of the candidate or candidates preferred, provided that the number of members desired was not exceeded. In a number of cases ballot papers were left unmarked, and in others the X mark was placed beside each of the 48 names. Others in place of the X put a tick against the names favoured, while yet others, in addition to marking 21 names with an X, drew thick lines through the names of the remainder. The magnitude of the task of counting the votes, both on the night of the election and at the official check, can be seen from the fact that the votes recorded on the four city issues totalled 886.350.- This was 258.106 fewer than the .figure at the 1038 election. Loss of Deposits Candidates for the Mayoralty are required to deposit £lO with their nomination papers, the deposit being £3 for j candidates in the other elections. If they fail to poll at least one-eightb of the votes received by the lowest successful candidate, they forfeit their deposits. On the figures already recorded in the mayoral contest, both Mr. Bailey and Mr. Payne will be unable to recover their deposits. Pending the result of the official count, it would appear that none of the candidates for the Hospital and Harbour Hoards will be mulcted. For the City Council, any speculation on this point will have to await the final counting.

TURN AGAINST LABOUR SIGNIFICANCE OF LANDSLIDE COMMENT BY MR. HOLLAND [BY TF.T.EGKAVn —PRESS ASSOCIATION'] CHRISTCHURCH, Monday "The municipal election results tell their own story," said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. G. Holland. "The nationwide landslide against Labour candidates must lie significant, especially following the recent Waipawa by-election, when the National Party quadrupled its majority. "In my opinion the results can he interpreted as a demonstration of the public's determination not to have war effort activities interfered with by less important subjects. The rejection of the Labour candidates is the public's method of protesting against the rap-idly-growing extent of Trades Hall domination in both national and municipal politics. "The fact 111 at the landslide is so nationwide shows that public feeling is uniform all over the Dominion, for the issues were different in the various centres. It is obvious from the voting that many thousands of erstwhile Labour supporters have reversed their votes. "If. as has often been contended, municipal elections hold in the same year as the Parliamentary elections can he regarded as a barometer of public opinion, National Party supporters will examine the results with unusual interest in view of the Parliamentary elections within six months."