MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12074, 27 February 1925, Page 7

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

REGISTRATION AND VOTING. BETTER FACILITIES PROMISED. Mr P. Fraser, M.P., headed a deputation to the Oity Council last evening to lay proposals from the Wellington Labour Representation ‘Committee/ in connection with the coming municipal elections. They asked for adequate provision for municipal electors to register and that mqre facilities should be given to elector?; to vote, said Mr Fraser. They thought that if the council could arrange for public libraries and places of easy accfts to hold copies of the municipal roll, registration would be facilitated. Also better voting facilities were needed. On election day many people had a limited time in which to cast their vote. It was not a statutory half-holiday, and many people had a very limited time in which to record their vote. They had to do this either in the lunch hour or between 6 and 7 at night. Serious congestion at booths occurred through this, and at last election women had been waiting in the rain for long periods. Already the 'returning officer had been asked to extend the number of "polling-places, said the Mayor, and he was now seeing what was being done. Also, he would see that as soon as the main roll was obtained from the printer, copies of it were distributed throughout the city. In. answer to a request by Councillor Monteith, the Mayor stated that he thought that provisions for enrolling might be made at the places where the copies of the main roll were placed. The deputation retired, Mr Fraser stating that he felt sure that the provisions made would be satisfactory.