MECHANICAL VOTING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12817, 17 July 1912, Page 7

MECHANICAL VOTING.

AN. INGENIOUS INVENTION

MELBOURNE, July 6. An ingenious voting machine, invented by M v W. Dall, of Dunedin (N. Z. ). has been brought before the notice pt the Commonwealth- Electoral.; Department,, and was yesterday displayed by the inventor to many members* of the House of Representatives. To outward appeal lanoe it is a. small cabinet, having along its front a row of t.tops similar to those m an organ. Tlie name of the candidate ia .."written above a particular stop, a pressure on which, records a, vote m his favor. At one' end — designed to project through an aperture into a room where the controlling officer would sit — is a lever, a pressure t upon which, after tho voter has recorded his votemakes the machine ready for, the next. No voting papers are required ; the elector pushes m a stop, which, turns the cog and automatically Bends up the candidate's total, and at the Bame time adds one to the total number of votes polled. The voter cannot push m more stops thaii the conditions of the poll allow, the mechanism locking all others. ' It is claimed for the machine that it does its work quickly, that it obviates informal voting, and that its weight* 60 or 5 701 b., make's it easily portable. It would be possible lo declare the. poll ten minutes after tho close of voting hours. Its cost ranges from between £5 and £10.