THE ELECTORAL ROLL

Southland Times, Issue 16839, 15 September 1911, Page 5

THE ELECTORAL ROLL

EXCEEDS 8000 ELECTORS. The Registrar of Electors is still receiving a large number of claims for enrolment dally and also notices to change the addresses of electors already enrolled. Up to Wednesday evening the figures were: — New claims received 2748 Addresses altered 1640 Transferred from other districts 615 Names purged from roll ; 567 There are still over'five hundred persons with ‘whom claims have been left by the enrolment officers and who have not yet returned them. As it is prob"able that the. main roll will be printed about the end of the present month it is necessary that these persons should return their claims without delay. Regarding the Absent Voters’ Permits, for which the Registrar has already been asked, the following extract from the Legislature Act, 1908, will help 1 to make the position clear:— “ An elector of any district may, at any time during the six months preceding the issue of the writ, apply in writing (in the form prescribed) to any Registrar for a voting permit authorising him to record his vote ’ outside the district in which he is enrolled, at any polling place appointed under the principal Act, and such application shall be attested by a Registrar of Electors, a Justice of the Peace, a Postmaster, or other responsible Government officer. “ If the application is made to any Registrar other than the Registrar of the district in which the applicant is enrolled, the Registrar to whom it is made shall forward it to the Registrar of the district in which the applicant is enrolled, and shall (by telegraph, if necessary) inform that Registrar of the particulars of the application. “ On receipt of such application or telegraphic advice the Registrar of the district in which applicant is enrolled, on being satisfied of the good faith of the applicant, and that the applicant’s name is - on the roll of the district, shall issue to him a voting permit, and shall without delay forward the voting permit to the applicant. “ A voting permit shall not remain in force for any period exceeding twelve months from the date thereof. “ Any person who loses his voting permit shall, on application to the Registrar who issued it, and on making a declaration in the prescribed form, be entitled to have a duplicate of the permit granted to him." However, until such time as the main roll has been printed it is not desirable to issue voting permits, as it is much easier to identify the applicants by inserting on the permit the applicant’s number on the electoral roll, and as the roll is compiled in alphabetical order it is Impossible to determine the numbers. The Registrar, is however, quite prepared to receive applications for the permits, but these will not be issued, unless in exceptional cases, until after the closing and printing of the main roll, probably about the end of the present month. The main roll will very probably exceed eight thousand electors, as against 6571 on the main roll at the 1908 election. This estimate Is made by the Registrar irrespective of what any portion of the Awarua electorate the Representation Commissioners may finally decide to tack on to Invercargill.