TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MOND'AY, 19th MAY, 1941. THE VOTING SYSTEM.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4427, 19 May 1941, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MOND'AY, 19th MAY, 1941. THE VOTING SYSTEM.

IT IS to be hoped that Parliament will rest awhile before it again recasts the form of voting paper to be used at local elections. In years gone by the voting paper has been subjected to constant change and although opinions may still vary regarding the form of setting out the directions to the voter, the materia, advantages of any further change , would be more than offset by the continuing confusion in the public mind. All that is required is that a voter shall have some reasonably clear method of stating the preferences and in this, use or custom has an important bearing. Now that the ballot paper in this form has passed its initial testing let it be hoped that the legislature will rest awhile before further change is attempted. The voting qualification does, however, occasion comment. In its broadest sense the ruling thought is that every qualifying citizen shall have the opportunity of the vote and the only remaining needs of the system is. that it shall reasonably guard against abuses. As it stands, however, the law in many respects is needlessly restrictive in some directions and generously lax in others. The ban on dual voting, for instance, has the effect of disfranchising many permanent ratepayers such as companies and various land-owning institutions, while the privilege of declaration voting or the qualification of State housing tenants can so readily extend the franchise to less permanent voters. The claim that the franchise should reach to the adult citizen is sound; but not even the consideration of dual voting should be permitted to disfranchise permanent organisations which are included in the community of ratepayers. Then again, it should be within the capacity of Parliament to devise a means of voting for those who cannot personally attend at the booths. With the statutory trend towards the observance of the Saturday holiday it must naturally happen that many people perforce have engagements over the week-end which remove them from the booths. This was perhaps most fully revealed this year by the holding of the elections during the period of the school holidays and it is a reasonable surmise that the majority of school teachers were disfranchised. The local complaint of Kawhia ratepayers is further illustration of how groups of eligible voters can be disfranchised. And that is undesirable —the more so because it should be so readily capable of adjustment if the legislature really desires to uphold the principle of a universal franchise. It should be possible, without opening the way for abuses to creep in, for a system of postal or pre-voting to extend for those voters who have bona fide reasons for non-attendance at the booths during the appointed hours.